The Plant Hospital

Pretending and role playing are two ways children learn about the world around them. The plant hospital combines both into an easy and fun activity at home or at school.

The Patients

Houseplants make the best plant patients for beginning nurses since they are mobile and small enough to be treated by children. Patients come for well or sick visits.

Upon arrival plant patients are given a physical exam. Hand lenses and microscope may be needed. Plant parts, potting media, and pots are inspected. The nurse or team of nurses fill out an admittance card recording patient’s scientific and common names, date of admittance, symptoms, results of physical exam, diagnosis, and monitoring schedule. Severely ill are admitted to the intensive plant care unit.

Most patients admitted for the first time are bathed in a warm solution of liquid Ivory Soap and water. Fuzzy leaved plants or those susceptible to rot if leaves become wet receive a gentle brushing with a soft toothbrush. Houseplants often suffer from a build-up of dust.

Plant Hospital Staff

An adult leader plays the plant doctor and the children or students assume roles of plant nurses specializing in intensive care, nursery care, or lab work.

Intensive Plant Care Unit

The intensive plant care unit treats, feeds, prunes, transplants, and aerates.

Houseplants can suffer from a variety of ailments. A set of ‘medical’ books on houseplants from the public or school library will assist nurses and doctor in diagnosing problems. Simple problems like scale and mealy bugs can be treated with rubbing alcohol and cotton balls. Nurses monitor the patient to insure the ailment doesn’t persist or return.

Repotting may be the antidote for potbound plants. When transplanting to larger pots, nurses should massage root balls to loosen roots before repotting. Surgical removal of some roots may be necessary. Nurses must monitor patients for signs of stress following transplanting and surgeries.

Houseplants can suffer from dehydration. In the home environment patients may be placed in the laundry room or in the bathroom. At school a nurse can be assigned to mist plants.

Overwatering is common for houseplants and results in root rot. Root rot may require amputation. Nurses should sterilize surgical tools with alcohol.

The Plant Nursery

Usually only healthy plant patients are candidates for propagation but when reproduction is needed to rescue the plant, nurses under the direction of the doctor perform proactive propagation.

Nurses propagate new plants from leaf, stem, and root cuttings. Some plants reproduce easily by division or runners. Propagation nurses closely monitor the progress of young plants to guide the growth and development and eventual transplanting to pots. The plant hospital can raise funds by selling new plants or gift others with the plant progeny.

The Hospital Lab

Nurses prepare tissue slides of stomata, cells, root hairs, disease biopsies, pollen and soil. Their findings assist nurses in the intensive and nursery units. Lab nurses may sketch a patient’s progress over time or take a digital photographic series on a patient.

On Call Services

Once trained in basic houseplant care, nurses may be called upon to administer first aid in settings beyond the plant hospital. At school this may involve caring for decorative plants in corridors, media center, or other classrooms. At home relatives, friends and neighbors may refer ailing plants by calling Plant 911 for assistance.

As nurses in the plant hospital see their actions positively affecting plants, they take pride in their curative caregiving.