For those of us who love orchids, it can be tricky convincing others that orchids are fun and fairly easy to grow. They have some quirks that make them a little different than raising your average houseplant, but with the right tricks you can successfully grow most orchids at home. Last week, Mom and I participated in Judy’s Day, a fabulous family outreach event hosted by the Cornell Botanic Gardens (https://www.cornellbotanicgardens.org/learning/youth-programs/judys-day). The goal of Judy’s Day was to provide fun, informative, and thought-provoking answers to many of the questions surrounding plants. Each booth featured a different member of the plant family and they all had hands-on activities to engage kids in plant science. Mom and I ran the Orchids Tent along with the help of another Cornell graduate student, Gozde, and some enthusiastic undergraduates. Our booth had a scavenger hunt where kids had to identify orchids based on characteristics like to monopodial vs. sympodial growth, flower shape, and leaf structure. The prize for correctly identifying all the orchids was a temporary tattoo Mom designed using one of her orchids.
2 Comments
3/21/2020 10:23:46 pm
I am utmost interested to know more details about your outreach program. That is because I am in search of ways on how I can make my time productive. I thought of being part of your circle since I want to make good causes, astroturfing least through the simple ways that I know. I just hope that more and more people will be aware of the the orchid outreach that you have right now. I am sure that a lot of people are interested to be part of it.
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Annette Gelfi
5/26/2024 08:42:47 am
Hi, I am in Perth, Western Australia, and I am the President of my local orchid society. I am very interested in the resources that you mentioned for engaging with children and young people regarding cultivating orchids. I would love to connect with you to discuss this if you would be interested. Thank you so much.
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AuthorJen Schmidt is a PhD graduate from Cornell University who, with the help of her mother (Barb), is turning into a crazy plant lady at a young age. Archives
September 2019
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