The green was faded from my leaves, dry and shriveled. I was standing on a knife point, walking the razor’s edge. I was one more dead leaf away from being in the trashcan instead of my beautiful spot on my owner’s desk. Hands bigger than my flower pick me up. This was it, my end. But…wait. We are going to the car, not the garbage.
Got a sick little plant like the one described above? Just bring it to school! Mr. Ferriera opened centrals own Plant Hospital in room SV03! When asked what made him decide to open a plant hospital, he responded it was a duel purpose. It gave them more baby plants, but it also gave his students a chance to learn how to take care of a sick plants. His students get to take care of the sick little plants and nurse them back to health.
“Plants are your producers, without plants there is no life,” says Mr. F, one of his reasons for his interest in plants. Even if it is not being eaten, it is still a part of the ecosystem, part of the food chain. And a good decoration.
Even though it has not been open too long, he still has many plants in the hospital, separated by what light they need and well taken care of. The main reason for the plants in the hospital is just neglect as well as not taking care of one type of plant right. Some of the plants he had needed to be simply repotted, they had outgrown their pot and did not have enough room for their roots. Another portion of his plants were taken care of like they were any other plant, when they needed more or less water or sunlight.
Mr. F’s student, senior Osvaldo Hernandez, says, “I think it’s a good idea,” people can come in with plants that have most likely been neglected, and they get their plant back and the class gets baby plants to raise and learn to take care of, all while the class is learning what to do with sick plants in different situations.
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