Outdoor Challenge #14

Pressing Flowers- Green Hour #14

The flower of the week was our Hibiscus. We reviewed the anther and filiment and our new flower part is the stigma which is quite prominant on a Hibiscus. Our plant had flowers in all stages from buds to faded blooms. We also took a good look at our Huisache-Daisy and were able to see them in all stages as well.
Sam watched the video from Green Hour #14 , helped me gather supplies and gathered our Huisache-Daisy and Hibiscus. He was upset that there weren't more variety in our backyard! Charlotte brought us a few Dandelions to press as well. Sam is thinking about what to do with these flowers after they are pressed - his suggestions was to make bookmarks.....we'll see how they turn out.

This was the simplest flower press to make! He could do it all by himself!

Outdoor Challenge #13

We wanted to take a closer look at our Stargazer Lily but there were no blooms. Sam found perhaps the saddest looking trumpet lily in a much neglected part of our yard- I had quite forgotten that it existed.

We laminated the front and back of one card with the parts of the flower from Barb- Harmony Art Mom's Green Hour Challenge #13. The second card has our Stargazer Lily on one side and our Trumpet Lily on the other.

I wanted to ID the anther and filament since they so prominent on these specimens. Sam wanted to ID all the parts so that is what we did. I think Sam is going to have an easy time remembering our terms for this week-our lily's anther was LOADED with pollen and he was covered with it by the time he was done examining it.

We walked around the yard taking photos of our flowers for the upcoming week and we came across these bugs. I'm not sure what they are but we'll keep an eye on them to see if we can figure it out.

Outdoor Challenge #12

New Nature study focus-Green Hour Challenge #12

Sam has had his eye on this particular kit for a while so when I mention that we were going to plant some seeds there was no doubt which seeds we were going to plant! I purchased the fly trap terranium and we kneeded the peat moss and then Sam added the water to make the mixture.

He created a "river" with rocks and added a mini snake for good measure. Now we finally get down to business and plant the tiniest seeds you can imagine. The next step is to........place terratium in the refrigerator and leave for 8 WEEKS before continuing the planting procedure. This is know as stratification. AHHHH.....I know I did this with the older kids but I don't remember this particular step! Check back with us sometime in August.....we'll have some Venus Fly Traps to show ya'll.