Mishap
April: Roses
Aylarah Scale

It was inevitable really wasn't it? I love music, so I always end upsinging whilst I'm working. The other day I was in the greenhouse on myown, working on an extra credit project when I got a particualarlycatchy tune stuck in my head - "Under the Rose". Approapriatley titled.So I started dancing a little and was really getting into it when Itripped on a small empty pot on the ground and went flying head first,straight into the roses! If there's one thing I hate about roses, it'sthat they have thorns. I ended up with scratched all up my arms and on my hands, luckily theymissed my face! They looked awful but luckily I remembered that we hadsome aloe vera ointment in the greenhouse from when we were working onaloe, so I used some of that to treat the scratches. I'm deffinitelygoing to pay more attention whilst working in the greenhouse from nowon, or at least I'm going to stay well away from the roses!

Experiment
April: Roses
Aylarah Scale

Would a rose by any other name still smell as sweet? Well I learnt inclass today that yes it would. There are over 100 species of roses andthousands of hybrids, and they all have unique names and are all quitedifferent, so it makes sense that they would all smell different too.What can be slightly confusing is that there's no classification systemfor roses, but they are generally put into four main groups - wildroses, old garden roses, modern garden roses and landscape roses. Inclass today we were repotting some different landscape roses, asthey're more disease resistant and easier for people who aren't roseexperts to look after.

I also learnt that when you mash thepetals together they produce a stronger smell, which made me remembertrying to make rose perfume out of the roses in our back garden when Iwas about 5.

Mishap
April: Roses
Rilla White

It was a cool day in the green houses. Rilla was in her long black robeover her Hufflepuff uniform as usual. The job today she'd thought wasfairly simple. Care for some roses. So she'd been raking out the olddead stuff under some roses and putting down new mulch. This had gonewell enough. The rake had broken once and she'd had to repair it, she'dgotten some leaves in her hair, and she was starting to get hot even onthis cool day. Overall, it was going well. Now she just needed to workon trimming up the roses. This is when the trouble started. Everythingwas going fine until she heard a "rrrip". Swinging around quickly notknowing right away what the sound was, she'd torn one of the sleeves ofher robe completely off. All she could think of now was how her motherwas going to kill her if she didn't get it fixed. So, thinking it bestto take off the rope, Rilla took it off and threw it to the side. Thenshe continued working. At least until she caught a now bare arm on arose thorn. "Ouch!" she hollered to no one in particular. Freeingherself from the roses she glared at them. This wasn't going as well asshe'd thought. Maybe she'd be rethinking planting roses all over theoutside of her house. These things were dangerous. Eventually shefinished trimming up the roses, but not until she had quite a fewscratches, bumps and bruises. This was one of the main reasons shedidn't usually like herbology. If she wasn't killing the plants, theywere trying to kill her. Sighing she picked up a stray rose and tuckedit behind an ear. That was life for you.

Experiment
April: Roses
Rilla White

Rilla who wasn't much into Herbology, or plants in general was always quite bored when it came time for class. However, this rose lesson somewhat surprised her. Though she didn't really enjoy working with plants roses she had always liked. They were pretty but they had thorns all down the stem. Roses could be sweet and nice but they could also be mean and nasty if handled wrong. This idea facinated Rilla. So she spent much time listening to how there were over 100 types of roses. She learned about how some were vines, some were bushes and some even grew up other plants. There were many hybrid types of roses. There was so much more to this plant business then Rilla had ever known. What she liked best of all was the fact that roses were hardy plants which meant they'd be much harder for Rilla to kill. Rilla even found out that roses were considered sacred by some religions. Rilla had always known roses meant love and all that. Anyone who knew anything knew that roses were commonly given to girls on Valentine's day. After all this exciting knowledge she planned to plant roses all around the outside of her house, when she got one.

Mishap
April: Roses
Castora Grimsby

I'm writing this entry with bandages on both of my hands, so if thewriting is shaky at least I have an excuse for poor penmenship. It allstarted off so well this month. I was learning loads about roses, theiruses and even repotted a variety all by myself. About a week later myrose began to look a little mopey. I thought maybe it was just in a badmood about being so tall. However Petunia (the girl who always seems tobe out to get me) mocked my attemt at providing adequate drainage formy rose. I guess I went a little overboard on the drainage holes. Infact very little, if any of the water I had given the bush had actuallystayed in the container. Which I may have noticed if I hadn't been soobsessed about measuring my plant everyday to see what progress it wasmaking. While Petunia worked on repotting another rose I challenged herto a contest. I told her I could repot my plant faster than she could.She accepted and we quickly found someone to referee our match. At theword "GO!" I was potting like a mad woman. I have never done anythingso fast in my life. I was "in the zone" as a muggle might say. HoweverI didn't realize that while in the zone, one might not realize thatroses have thorns. My rose had quite sharp thorns. Which poked into myskin and left me a painful reminder that mistakes happen, but a hastyjob doesn't always turn out the way you would like it too. I have sincecarefully (with gloves) repotted my lovely rose. I think the sight ofmy crazy bandages are cheering my rose up (well it could be that Ireplanted it into better conditions). It seems to be returning to ahealthy state. And I hope to be soon as well.

Experiment
April: Roses
Castora Grimsby

We have been hard at work studying Roses in Herbology this month. It is an endlessly fascinating plant. In fact one of the first things we learned was that there are over 100 varieties of Wild roses! Thankfully we are not expected to write a paper on each one. (Although I suspect that might be the punishment if Prof. Chutney discovered one of her students asleep in the greenhouse during class.) The fruit of the rose is called Rose hips. The "hips" can be used in all sorts of things like jams, jellies and even teas. I'm curious to try one of the recipes, if we get to harvest some from our plants later in the year. We repotted some of the wild rose bushes into larger containers. I was lucky enough to get a Rosa canina. Also known as a Dog Rose. I found out from a bit of research that this specific type of rose was often planted in Victory gardens during World War II. See I told you roses were fascinating! Roses like well drained soil and temperate climates, so I was careful and made sure I provided plenty of drainage. Apperantly my variety is a climbing rose, so I'm looking forward to watching it climb the window sill of the green house. There are pale pink buds beginning to appear so I am sure they will bloom into beautiful roses soon! I can hardly wait until I walk into class and smell the sweet perfume of my wild roses.

Mishap
April: Roses
Ardeliah Longbottom

"AAGH!" Ardeliah screeched again at the plant. Backed into a corner with a spade in one hand and a small blowtorch in the other, she tried to make sense of how she could have gotten herself into this predicament. She had merely wanted to create a hybrid rose by taking some pretty small blue roses and crossing them with some singing tulips. She had believed that she could create something beautiful for the eyes, nose and ears. But something had gone wrong. The growth potion she had made in potions class definitely did not work the way it was supposed to. Instead of singing blue roses, she had screaming carnivorous purple roses that seemed to think she would be tasty. They had chased her around the room and shot their thorns at her when she had grabbed the blowtorch.

Waving the spade around like crazy she tried to light the torch with one hand. She could hear that someone had entered the green house and ran back out again at the sight of her plant, but she paid them no mind. Finally the torch burst forth with a fine blue flame. Throwing the spade at the pot the evil flowers were sprouting from, she grasped the torch with two hands and turned the flame up as high as she could. Laughing maniacally she showered the plant with flame and watched as the leaves curled from the heat. When the last thorn fell to the floor with a soft crunch, the Professor and several students entered. Ardeliah stood there in the aftermath of her small inferno with withered blackened plants falling into piles of ash as the blowtorch sputtered and died. Looking at her classmates she gave a feeble "Hi"

Experiment
April: Roses
Ardeliah Longbottom

The green house was sunny and warm when Ardeliah entered. The heady scent of roses almost knocked her back out, the scents were so strong. It was still a nice change from the cold windy weather outside. Walking along the rows of flowers she took the time to smell some as she headed for the work tables at the back of the room. The small pink roses looked so tiny next to the huge red roses, and very quiet next to the crying yellow roses. She looked around to see if she could see any blue roses like the ones her dad had given her mum for Valentine's day. She finally spotted them behind the Eglantine Roses. The apple like scent becoming even clearer the closer she leaned into it.

Smiling to herself she continued on past the large bushes of roses nestled in beside smaller clumps of creeping roses until she reached her worktable in the back. The scent of roses was even stronger back here even though most of the roses were out front. It took her a few moments to read the notes on the board. Then she realized the reason for the heady aroma's. Class today was about bottling the scent of the Rambler Roses that had just been delivered from Japan. Half of the roses had been picked and were lying in piles on the tables waiting to be crushed and the scents stored into jars for the potions master and school nurse. They had some uses for them that required fresh rose essences. Sighing to herself she rolled up her sleeves and went to work crushing rose petals while she waited for the rest of the class to arrive.

Experiment
March: Clover
Felicia Hartwick

*starts humming I’m Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover*

As a kid I can remember searching any patch of grass for a four leaf clover, and believe me growing up in the Bronx that was mighty hard to do considering all we had in my neighborhood was cement. But there were times at the park when I would con my dad into going to see the Little League game I’d spend some time on the search. I always knew it was a symbol of good luck, my Irish friends had told me that. But I didn’t know the leaves as so represented the Holy Trinity. One leaf was for the Father, one for The Son, one for The Holy Spirit and the last one for God’s Grace. It also symbolizes Faith, Love, Hope and Luck, the love part I already knew.

Actually the four leaf clover is a mutation of Trifolium repens, and that according to Yoke and Zoom only 1 in 10,000 plants will naturally mutate to produce a four leaf clover. No wonder it was so darn hard to find one. But thanks to science and cloning and hydroponics, Yoke and Zoom now report they can increase the production of the four leaf clover by 1 in 41 plants. Well there you go the odds are getting better to find one now.

Now when you are hunting for said four leaf clover, remember not to be fooled by other types of clover. You can spot a true four leaf clover by it’s leaves… yes there are four, but of those four, one has to be smaller then the others in order for it to be a true four leaf clover. There are other clover plants out there (Pepperwort and Oxalis) that bear four leaves normally.

Now that I learned a little bit more on what I’m looking for, now that I have a HUGE backyard, maybe if this snow ever melts I’ll continue my look for four leaf clovers this summer.


http://www.fourleafclover.com/4fact.html

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