kudos to the Mighty Assistant... dried, fresh, and blooming flowers

above you see some of the bookmarks we made this winter. I had my hand in gluing the flowers down, but my wonderful assistant worked the flower press with many a student last summer and fall. The other day she made an arrangement of of Azalea blooms which led to...

1. a student saying,"Can we dry those?" and off I went with students to gather spring blooms and the Mighty Assistant and the other students got out the microwave press. We came back and then back again with blooms of Blue Bells, Dogwoods, Cherries, Apples, and Pansies. Not what I had planned, but a wonderful day to capture spring in our midst
2. On Tuesday, our supervisor came in to observe my teaching and saw the flower arrangements. Today my supervisor called to thank the Mighty Assistant for the arrangements she made this morning for a luncheon, which celebrated the success of some of our students.

This morning as I worked on the computer, the Mighty Assistant, saw something that no one had seen. One of our mystery aloes had decided to put on a show. And as my work week ended, I took some photos of that discovery...

Aloe update and mint young ones

much is happening here and there, but here is another blog about our big aloe plant and its blooms.

Like many flowers on a spike the bottom buds open first and die and the blooming action goes upward..

Here is a view from the top...

yesterday the students got to get there hands on seedlings. They will be touching many more in the next few months. This is spearmint. I was thinking as we worked with the seedlings about how a plant that can be so hard to get rid of as an adult can be so fragile as a young one. We placed 5 seedlings into 4" square pots.