Now that Cassia didn't know, considering she just doesn't get along with plants. And she was pretty sure that they have learn it last year. But when you don't care about something and never use it you kinda forget about it and that was the case with Cassia .So she didn't have much of an idea though the ways her classmates mentioned sounded familiar enough.

So she was going to think about it rationally. She thought about it for a minute then raised her hand, " We make sure they're kept in a safe place in order not to stamp on them." Cassia herself had done that several times actually and her grandmother wasn't pleased but Cassia didn't care and still doesn't she'd do it again if the plants bothered her.

That's it saying more would mean that Cassia was cheating plus copying answers and that she doesn't do.

"It's a bit sore," he admitted. The raw garlic probably hadn't helped and now Aspen was encouraging him to eat another clove... He nodded, taking out one of the cloves from his pocket and popping it into his mouth. The gagging began automatically. It. Was. Not. A. Pleasant. Flavour. No wonder vampires hated the stuff! He had obliged, however, because Aspen would obviously know what she was doing AND Elijah had a small hope that the more garlic he hate, the more chance their was that it would repel the small amount of infection he had...

He nodded along as Aspen described their final plant and let him know how stupid muggles were. He even returned her wink! Elijah liked winking.

SPOILER!!: Bentley

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hera

After ducking and weaving between the students to ensure they were on the right track, Seren came to a halt in the middle of the greenhouse. Pursing her lips as she checked the time on her watch, she realised the students ought to get onto the next task... one which they would find tedious for sure. "Alright everyone, gather round," she called out to the scattered students. Of course, by gather round she meant shush and move in closer.

"To conclude our introductory lesson to herbs," and because herbs were fairly straight forward, "we're going to spend the next fifteen minutes going through and administering some general care and maintenance." Which they should all know by now. No excuses. Unless they were a first year of course...
"Just quickly, what is involved in general care, or maintenance?"

OOC: Provide only ONE aspect of care/maintenance in your response. The lesson will continue in approximately 24 hours.

With the task over, the Professor asked her next question and he raised his hand to offer his answer, his bad breath spreading further around the greenhouse everytime he opened his mouth "I imagine not setting the things on fire is a form of care..." Merlin knew that Elijah secretly wanted to torch the entire greenhouse in all it's GREENERY. Although it was saving his life (or death) by supplying him with the garlic he needed.

SPOILER!!: West and Aspen II

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

West went over to Aspen and was about to bug her and see what was up when the professor spoke.




West decided to go for something pretty obvious. He put his hand up.

"Get rid of weeds so they don't steal your plant's nutrients or choke its roots and stuff."


Now. Attention back to his sister. What was the what?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Eye Touz

Aspen happily accepted her brother over. She put a hand on his shoulder. "Just making sure Elijah gets all the garlic he needs." In other words, that smell? That was the scared-looking Puff next to her. The one that thought he was a vampire.

As for the question? Water, sun, fertilizer, weeds, insect repellant, and potting.... all were given already. So she went a different route, though she didn't raise her hand - because frankly she'd rather Bentley not remember that she was in this class.

"You can't take care of the herb unless you know how to take care of yourself. So, knowing proper procedure on how to handle special herbs is essential. For example, those herbs with prickly spines or those that might give off powerful odors," Pause to look at Elijah, who STUNK A LOT, "or ones that even....bite require special handling." Grrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiinny grin grin.

Basically, Aspen's answer was: knowledge of specific herbs. No herb was the same and would require different things to live. But were the points worth not messing with Elijah more?

Nope.

It was then when the young Vamp!Odessa joined them. Elijah had seen his fangs in astronomy, and briefly remembered how he had exposed the ickles underwear. He gave a small snort as he thought of the little quaffles.

After Aspen gave her answer, including her little biting joke, he leaned in CLOSE to her to whisper in her ear, his bad breath no doubt potent enough to make even the largest of men's eyes water (looking at you, Borr!). "Good'un," he snickered, giving his approval of her little joke. He wondered if Bentley was aware she was teaching vampires. Surely the Headmistress would have had to have made all her staff aware...?

Laura looked at the Professor. "Well you have to make sure the Plant is in the right sort of soil don't you?" Laura was sure she had heard about plants dying from being in the wrong type of soil but how did you decided what was the right type and what was the wrong type.

Addie thought about the question. What was involved in the care of plants? She heard people naming things off such as soil and safe places to keep them. So what else was there? Then she remembered learning about something, maybe it was last term. Addie raised her hand. "Professor, I believe you have to make sure that you give them the correct amount of water. If you over water plants they could drown and die," Addie said proud of her answer.

Ariella gathered closer to the professor with the other students as they moved on with their lesson. Maintenance and general care? Like taking care of the plant to help it grow... Well Ari could remember some things her grandmum had taught her...and some of the obvious ones, "Like watering it and good soil and sun?" Ari said, hoping she was correctly answering the teachers question correctly...

Vivi retreated back to the wall, her hand over her pocket briefly to make sure her found leaves were still there. Yup. All present and accounted for.

She cocked her head to the side, trying to listen to the professor and trying to keep one eye on Aspen being rather... suspicious. Which wasn't new, but was always amusing.

"Professor, you have to prune back these types of plants to encourage their seasonal growth." Eh. She liked the hands' on tasks better than answering questions, especially with all her peers so worried about plant drownings. Was that like... a thing in Scotland? Did they drown plants here?

Hmm... plant care... Well... maybe herb care specifically?

Anya listened to her classmates. They said all the obvious ones already. Water. Sun. Could she raise her hand and say that not killing the plant was a good way to make sure it was cared for?

Eh.

Smart remarks aside.

She raised her hand. "Proper... er... housing." That was a good word for it, right? "Like... if you had something that grew tall, you'd need those stake thingys to keep it from falling over." Like... with tomatoes.

She was pretty sure there was an herb that grew tall and needed stakes. She just couldn't think of one off the top of her head.

Taylor raised her hand, "Professor, the amount of sunlight is important. Some needs shade while others thrive on sunlight." She smiled.

Just as Sierra finished her task, she heard the professor's voice sounding throughout the area. Spinning around, she saw Bentley and moved in a little. Conclude?! As in...end?! That was always a high point of the lesson as far as Sierra was concerned, so she perked up a little knowing the end was in sight.

"Well, I know we check to see if it's getting the right amount of water," Sierra said, raising her hand, "...because we don't want it to be over-watered or under-watered. Then there's certain steps we take to repair that if there's been any damage." She remembered that being a big focal point of Bentley's lessons last term

Part of regular maintenance? Hmm. Emmanuelle mulled that over for few minutes. It seemed that most of her classmates had provided all the answers already. So, instead of being a parrot, she just decided to listen to the rest of the lecture.

After some thought and listening to responses, Jory raised his hand. "Professor, we can make sure that weeds do not grow where the herbs are since they would compete for water, air and sunlight and that will suffocate the herbs,'' he said.

"To conclude our introductory lesson to herbs," and because herbs were fairly straight forward, "we're going to spend the next fifteen minutes going through and administering some general care and maintenance." Which they should all know by now. No excuses. Unless they were a first year of course...
"Just quickly, what is involved in general care, or maintenance?"

OOC: Provide only ONE aspect of care/maintenance in your response. The lesson will continue in approximately 24 hours.[/QUOTE]

Just barley after Nerida finished her task, she heard the professor's voice sounding throughout the area. Turning around, she saw Professor Bentley and moved towards the Professor a little. Wait conclude as in...end?! Nerida frowned a bit, class was over. She had fun looking at all the herbs.

"Place the plant in the right spot. Like if it needs sun or shade." Nerida said, raising her hand, "Because if we place it in the wrong spot, that the plant could die. Or if it was caught before it could get worse, I think their is some repairing skills that can be used..."

EH? EH?

Was there really a need to shout Daichi?! She looked over her shoulder and gave him a quick glare.They weren't trying to pull attention yet, were they? It had been him who slunk down a while ago so they'd have a good chance at running away. But, see what he was doing? Keep it low, lunkduck.

She took a step back so she was now standing beside him and not in front. Grasping his elbow, she whispered. "Plants need water, obviously." Duuhh. It was like the Golden Rule. Smirk. Smirk. And about the crumpled flowerbed... "We can approach her when the class is over...and inform her properly."

Oh, she can already see House points slipping away.

Tag raised his hand, "Well, Professor, if it seems the plant, herb doesn't seem to be growing like it should be maybe the soil that its been dug into isn't rich soil? I mean, maybe they should be changed to a different location with maybe better soil or more sunlight." Seemed reasonable right? If a student wasn't progressing in some material they may need to learn it a different way or be taught by a different person. It just seemed like moving a plant around might be and might not be right.

Tiffany nodded as she thought of many ideas of how to take good care of a plant. Water, sunlight and soil. That's all it needs. Raising her hand, she answered,"I think we have to control the amount of water we pour into the plants because it would die easily if it takes in too much water." But after all it depends on how long have you put it under the sun, that you count how much water you should pour after that. Or else it would be too dry and it wouldn't grow either.

Wisteria thought of the question. After years of taking care of her own plants, if relevant to the muggle world--which thought so, "Professor, that would include rotating the dirt." She rationalized, "that without rotating the dirt the plants will start receiving the nutrients it needs and therefore renewing the dirt is one way of taking care of the plants."

Witsy smiled, even if it were wrong she felt glad she was participating more. This was definitely more improvement than last year.

This really was a remedial lesson, wasn't it? Ethan sighed as he already knew the basics of plant care and, as it seemed, so did the rest of his classmates. He listened as they rattled off the typical answers - sunlight, water, properly fertilized soil, blah blah blah - and he raised his hand.

"Depending on what type of plant it is, you might want to keep it away from your kneazle," he said with a slight frown, speaking from personal experience. "Unless, of course, you want it chewed to bits." Now... might they get to something a little more hands-on?

General care for plants?

Wasn't that simple, Oakey always cared for Granny Gunter's non-lethal garden back home, so this question was a piece of cake. "Most plants need just enough water and sunlight to be cared for."
Bentley didn't have your typical everyday plants though. She had Fanged Geraniums, Venomous Tentacula, and worst of all Snargaluffs. "You should avoid maintaining anything that has teeth, stingers, spikes, tenticles, or spews acid." he added quickly hoping that any listening firstie would heed his warning, those demons needed fire.

They were done already? Well, alright then. Selina put done the magical book that had all of the answers about herbs and moved in so she could hear Bentley more clearly. She had missed instructions by Bentley before and moving on to the next part of any of Bentley's classes blind was NEVER a good idea. So she wanted to make sure that she caught every word.

Once Bentley posed her question, Selina started to think about general matenience. A lot of people kept saying water and soil and such. And as much as that was true, the sixth year did not want to be a copy cat when it came to answers. She fumbled a little at trying to come up with a response when she finally figured it out, "Love, Professor. THAT is a vital part of plant care." Didn't Bentley always sing to her plants?

It was absolutely AMAZING! Seren beamed proudly as the students rattled off a whole list of care requirements. Diligently, with the aid of a bit of magic, the black board erased its previous notes and replaced them with new ones.

A few students earned themselves frowns or scowls... namely Elijah who seemed to think not setting a plant on fire was considered as caring for it, as well as Serenity who seemed to be under the impression that a plant could be ugly. Pfft, as if that was possible. They were ALL beautiful.

Then again, some students received looks of shock or confusion. What with Serenity and her theory of exploding plants, as if that would ever happen in HER greenhouse... unless it was a puffapod. And Ethan seemed to be under the impression that she had a kneazle. Nope, but if she did it would be properly trained. As for Oakey's response... "They ALL deserve and require love and care. Would you apply the same theory to humans, or even to yourself?" ... yeah, think about that one!



Seren looked over the list that had accumulated on the board. She was particularly fond of the last one... well done Captain Skylar.

"Very well done," she finally stated after all answers were shared. "There is always something WE could be doing to ensure THEY are treated better. The list is endless and cyclical." This was the beauty of the natural world.

"For the rest of the lesson, we'll be breaking off into teams and and administering this care. For those of you pruning, only dried stems or leaves, or on the woodier herbs a couple of inches from the tips."

"For those of you fertilising, use hippogriff dung in this greenhouse...."

"And for those of you weeding... make sure to don't rip out anything other than weeds." Or else.

"And those of you staking plants so that they don't fall over... make sure you don't accidentally stake yourself... or a peer."

With two flicks of her wand, the list on the board shifted and moved to form four. One for each house.



"Dragon hide gloves on and get going!"

OOC: You have 48 hours to complete this task. To be eligible for full participation marks you are required to post a minimum of 6 times. 3 per activity. If you require Bentley's assistance please put her name in your title. Thanks! (:

After adding a few more to his notes Vickers pushed himself off the work table he was leaning on and dug into his book bag for his dragon hide gloves. He can see where the sacks are for the hippogriff dung, and started to walk towards it, collecting a bucket and a trowel along the way.

When he's scooped up enough of the fertilizer into his bucket he started to look around the second thing he needed. Not having spotted these he neared the Herbologist and murmured "Professor Bentley, are we supposed to transfigure something to use as stakes or we have a ready supply somewhere?"

Kurumi was realizing that she didn't actually need her parchment and quill out anymore, seeing as this was especially review for her as a seventh year, and put her things back in her bag while Professor Bentley explained what they were going to do next. She did flash a quick smile towards Selina and her mention of love for the plants. Kurumi seemed to remember dancing and singing to a pair of cherry trees last year with a certain Ravenclaw...who hadn't ended up apologizing for the harsh and uncalled for words said to Kurumi despite the Gryffindor offering an olive branch of sorts...

Made everything worse really. Oh well. Kurumi had sort of just come to terms with Ravenclaw girls always having something against her. And many Slytherin girls...well, namely Sierra in that case.

But that wasn't the point. The point right now was that she needed to... "Prune and weed," Kurumi said to herself as she slipped her dragonhide gloves on an set her things off to the side and out of everyone's way. She then made her way towards a patch of lavender that was rather overgrown with weeds and began to loosen the soil with her fingers to that she could remove the weeds easier. After a few minutes of just doing this, Kurumi began to easily remove the unwanted little things and set them on the ground of the greenhouse by her feet when she thought of something.

"Does anyone want to team up? Make sure that plants get all the maintenance?" After all, it would be a shame if some plants were only pruned and not watered and whatnot. "I'll be pruning and weeding over here."

So they need to do another activity again and this time it involves the taking care of the plants. Juliet is beginning to think that this green thumb thing is a curse in their blood. She pouted hearing the professor to wear their dragon hive gloves. Good thing about it though is that they can do the activity in teams. Juliet can work with that.

Looking at the board she saw that Slytherins are in charge with the weeding and the re-potting. Shouldn't be much of a hard task right? It's manageable. Fun. She stood up and got ready by putting on the dragon hive gloves and her eyes scattered around the room. She'll work with anyone at this point, really.

Sarah wrote down the things on the board in her notes. These things always came in handy.
Taking out her dragon hide gloves Sarah put them on, making sure each finger had a home. The she went over to the place where the green herbs looked yellow and sickly, they definitely had weeds.
Sure enough they did! Sarah leaned over and pulled a weed ever so gently that nothing happened. She was scared of messing up and being too rough. Yet she was not getting anywhere. She then decided to use the approach of being firm and gentle. She did it firmly, yet made sure not to take the wrong thing out. Stranger yet,, are herbs not weeds themselves?

Merlin there were a lot of weeds in this flowerbed... Kurumi continued to tug on the plants, but it seemed like they were charmed with Geminio. Professor Bentley wouldn't do something like that though...would she?! Kurumi eyed the Herbology professor for a brief moment before getting back to removing more of the weeds and setting them on the ground by her feet. There were just too many in this flowerbed for her to do herself AND do some much needed pruning...
BINGO!

"Hey, Juliet!" Kurumi called as she waved her slightly soiled covered dragonhide gloves towards the Slytherin. "Come help me weed this flowerbed." Slytherins had to do weeding too after all. Two birds with one stone, right? Some of the lavender here looked as though it could do with some repotting as well...since the flowerbed was sort of overgrown with the herb.