Daichi was thankful that he had landed softly on the flowers and herbs because he would have tried and failled to glare at Beezus if he had hurt himself. "I know i know" he said airily as he waved his hand to dismiss her apologies and then gasped again when he was pulled up.

Dusting off his school uniform, the Slytherin looked at Beezus as she went to write something down on her parchment. Remembering the lesson, Daichi checked his own and noticed he still needed one. Maybe he could... He looked over Beezus shoulder and saw a few words. Hmm.. maybe he could use them in his own table?



doooone~!

Now his focus was on the flattened herbs again and he suddenly panicked. "B-beezus?! W-what if Professor Bentley sees this? I'll be put in Azkaban!" what should he do? what should he doooo?

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.

Having finished her table early, Ira had just been wondering when Professor Bentley called them all together. Ira went and moved in closer to Professor, and listened.

They now had to administer care to the herbs? Easy enough. After all, caring for herbs was obviously easier than fire seeds they did last year, wasn't it?

When asked about general care of plants, Ira raised her hand up and answered, "Proper watering is essential.. over watering can have an adverse effect on the plant." Yeah, they had just learned last year, how over watering was harmful. So, maintaining the amount of water given to the plant was essential.

Having finished filling in her Herb Table, the Ravenclaw turned to the Duck Boy when he started being hysterical about the smooshed plants that he accidentally sat on. EEP! Beezus bit her lower lip, giving him an I-don't-know look.

The plants weren't that flattened. They just look a bit...disheveled.

"Err...we should tell her...later...I think?" Honesty is the best policy after all. Okaaaay? But before she could receive a response from the Slytherin, Professor Bentley's voice filled the Greenhouse. They were to gather around. Beezus then pulled Daichi by the arm, muttering silently as she dragged him towards their classmates who assembled around the Herbology Professor. "We'll tell her. For now, let's just do what Professor Seren asks us to." He understood that, yes?

...having edged close to where the Professor was, her Slytherin partner in crime friend behind her, Beezus raised her hand immediately when a question was raised. An aspect that was involved in general plant care. She quickly thought of Watering but Ira had been faster to give the same idea. "Fertilizing. That is also one important aspect in caring for your plants Professor. Usually, plants are fertilized at the time it was planted and after every few months."

Fertilizers were materials of natural or synthetic origin that are added to the soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants.

Spike wandered back to where Professor Bentley stood, his now slightly crumpled parchment in hand. Maybe he should have used something to rest against for writing? Ah well, luckily Herbology wasn't marked on how neat his handwriting was, nor how muddy his hand prints were.

"Re-potting, if necessary," Spike answered. "People often keep herbs in small pots in the kitchen, but this can be really restricting as the roots grow, and can lead to a deficiency in nutrients. Re-planting in bigger pots, and possibly thinning plants whilst doing so, helps ensure that the plant has room to grow and flourish."

Hmmm care and maintenance.... Vickers presses his lips together, remembering something he keeps seeing his Grandmother do. He raises his hand as he replies "Professor, it would be a good practice to prune dead or old stems left over from the previous year or even the past seasons, it would encourage new growth and also helps keep the compact form of the plant."

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?

Yes! Now they could stop looking for plants that she didn't know...though that wasn't so true anymore now that she knew the plant that gingerbread men came from....

She followed the Professor's instructions and moved in a closer. For a second she was tempted to stand just as close to her as she was standing at the beginning of the class but it would have meant pushing through a lot of students so it wasn't all that worth it. There was no dragon and if there was, she looked puny and unsatisfying when put against the older kids.

Care and Maintenance. Lex had a feeling the Professor was talking about caring for the plants in which case she had a brilliant response.

"You should water them regularly--oh but not with too much water because then the garden starts to flood and your left with the strong temptation to play in the mud and lead mud trackings back in through the kitchen your step-mother just cleaned." Though sometimes there was no harm in like, like right after the woman annoyed her. "But that's not the only reason. My Daddy says we shouldn't over water because then the plant might explode!" Yup. He said it therefore it had to be true. Nod.

Orr put up her hand and waited for Professor Bentley to nod at her before saying, "Professor, keeping each individual plant shaded and exposed to sunlight in the right amount is also important for plant care and maintence."

Minerva turned when she heard Professor Bentley speak and listened as she asked the next question. Thinking about this for a second her eyes had scanned the green house and a she placed her hand in the air. Waiting patiently for her turn,

"Professor some herbs need full sun, where as others need shade. So a general care for them would be to make sure that you know which your herb is before planting it, so that you can put it in the best possible place. You don't want to give it sun if it's a shade herb it will get to much and die, and you don't want to put it in shade if it's a full sun herb, it won't get enough sunlight and you will have the same problem."

Dylan came closer like the Professor had instructed...and when she asked about plant maintenance, the Slytherin laughed. Everyone was answering at once.

Wow, good to know he had smart peers.

*sarcasm*

...but...to offer something, like he always liked to do..."Keep an eye out for insect infestation? Sometimes plants can't fight off predators, so it's really our job to help them out in that respect." Yep, bugs. Plants could get bugs. He'd seen it happen.

Oh Kat knew a lot about the care of herbs. But they were only asked for one. Probably the basic would be a good answer to that. Basic = watering the herbs regularly.

"The most obvious and basic would be watering the herbs regularly," Kat said. "All plants need water to grow, which means herbs are not exception."

Herb care. Hmm..Ells wasn't exactly an expert on the subject or anything but she figured herbs weren't too hard to grow. Especially since Gran grew lots and lots of them. Those plants always thrived and Gran didn't exactly have a green thumb.

"Professor, I know that the herbs need lots of sunlight and that you're meant to pluck them often. Sometimes Gran turns the potted ones too, I'm not sure why. I'm guessing it's so they grow evenly?" Seemed to make sense. Oh and they obviously needed to be watered a lot, though someone already covered that part.

This time she had actually managed to finish a task minutes before the deadline. Having already moved back to her initial place in silence, closer to the Professor, Ariadne listened carefully to what the woman had to say. And there was a question involved. One which she knew the answer to!

'It's paramount to remove weeds growing in the herb garden amongst other plants, because otherwise they just consume water and nutrients. This is usually done by chopping them off at ground level.' Of course, there was the part about watering and sunlight, but those would be most people's first thoughts.

A little disappointed that their fun activity had ended, Cora sighed as she thought about the next question. Care and maintenance. Well, obviously Cora knew how to take care of plants. She thought about the different things they needed. She thought about her failed plant in her garden, the only one she had actually planted when she was five.

"Sometimes you have to remove dead branches or parts of the plant so that it can continue to grow and stay healthy." Cora wished she knew about this when she was younger.

Glad they were finally done with the activity Hannah moved in closer to the professor and listened to the next question. "Professor you have to prune your herbs so that they stay looking nice. It also helps them to produce for longer periods." Yup! That sounded good.

If you were going to have plants you better keep them up and have them looking snazzy. How embarrassing to raise ugly herbs. Also if you went through all the work you would want them to keep producing right? Made total sense to her!

Parchment in hand, Kurumi looked it over again before returning to were the rest of the group had gathered. General maintenance, right. The seventh year sat back for a bit, idly playing with the edges of her parchment, and listened to what some of the younger students had to say before she spoke. "Replanting , when the plant has outgrown its pot or the space it is currently occupying so that it's roots can continue to grow among one of the many reasons to do this," Kurumi offered after raising her hand.

When Professor called for everyone to gather around her, Alyssa walked over and joined the rest of her classmates. She listened as Professor Bentley asked her question and waited as the other students gave their answers before raising her hand and answering.

"Professor. Plants get their food and nutrients from their potting soil. So the plant's potting soil should be changed and added regularly."

"This is because after a period of time, all the food/nutrients in the soil gets absorbed by the plant or washed away by the water. So the plant needs new soil, in order for it to get more food."

Nigel walked over to where Professor Bentley wanted them to. He was just happy about being done. He knew somethings about care of plants like watering them and stuff. That was about it. Nigel put his hand up and said

"Professor, I know you have to give them sun light and water them regularly. But not to much water or you would drown them."

He was wondering what the quick way to kill a plant was. If you knew that then you would know the easiest way to save plants and isn't that want Professor Bentley wanted. To save plants.

what is involved in general care, or maintenance?

Juliet raised her hand to answer the professor. "Correct temperature should be watched, professor" she said. There's a lot of stuff to do when caring for plants, and temperature plays a big role in it. "Not all plants lives under the same weather" she added. Plants are very delicate. So taking care of them is really important.

Seri followed Lex into the centre and paid some attention to Mrs. Professor. Care and maintenance? Maintenance was stuff like... fixing cars right? Did the same go for plants? Well, magical ones at least. Didn't they just take care of themselves? Why was it HER job to look after them? Whatever...

"Miss, my mother said to leave them outside and hope they look okay. If they look ugly then she pulls them up and buys a nice one... None of these are.. very pretty, she added in her head. They were ugly, boring things. Hardly any of them had pretty flowers. Lex said something about water... right. Seri was with her mother, why have them if they didn't look nice?

"Tell her later? Can't we just...i don't know run away?" Cue the puppy eye look and clasped hands right there. Bentley might be a cool relaxed Professor but he had just destroyed her pretty flowers! He wasn't going to survive that!

With his shoulders hanging low as he tried to make his appearance less noticable in the group. Maybe if he stood closer by the door he could run away even before the Professor saw the disheveled plants. But his thoughts were not made true when Beezus suddenly grabbed his arm dragged him to the middle of the class!

"Okay , okay" he whispered to her because he thought she was dragging him so that they could tell what had happened. "I'll tell her!"

He had not heard that the Professor had tried to gather them together again to continue the lesson. His gaze went to the flattened plants behind him before he quickly turned around. So Beezus had not dragged him to tell but to answer a question...? Good!

Listening to the question, the Slytherin bit his lower lip in thought. "Giving water!" He suddenly shouted as his arm shot up in to the air. Probably hitting a person who stood close by...

Way to keep a low profile, duck boy!

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.

"They need adeqaute sunlight, therefore one may have to cut back overhanging branches from another plant" Sarah said raising her hand. They also needed water of course, yet other then that herbs seemed to require not much maitenace.

Belle heard the professor ask a question about the basic's of taking care of plants. Belle raised her hand with the only information she knew about plants, "Professor wouldn't the plants need proper trimming so they won't lose nutrients and they won't die because of overgrown roots?" Belle wasn't too much into plant life but she figured she would give a shot.