HERB-201 Lessons

Year Two, Lesson Nine
Hands-on Herbology

Introduction
Hello, everyone, and welcome to your last lesson in Herbology this year! Today we are going to look at some charms and plants. After all, aren’t plants just charming? We will first be covering a few spells that are definitely on a need-to-know list for any herbologist. Then, we will have a brief guest appearance to show you some plant-related charms that are just for fun. Finally, we will wrap up class and the year with a brief review.

Unfinished Business
Now, we have two spells to cover that are must-have spells in your arsenal meant to improve growth. I will get into explanations, limitations, and pros and cons in just a moment.

Herbivicus
Ah yes, the Plant Growth Charm. I alluded to this charm back when I taught you the Growth-Starting Charm. They are certainly related, but this spell takes a larger toll on your plants and is more difficult to cast, as might be expected. But, we’ll get into that in just a moment. For now, the spell’s details. The spell is pronounced her-BIH-vih-cuss, and the wand movement is not overly complicated. Watch me, please! Start at your lower right side, drag your hand up, curve it down to the left, then curve it up and to the left. There we go. It seems most of you have it. When the spell is cast properly, your wand will emit a vibrant green light and either the plant you targeted will grow rapidly before your eyes, or the flowers will bloom, depending on the stage of  life the plant is in. The larger the plant, the more willpower you will need (for example, trees will be much more difficult than daffodils).

However, there is a dangerous downside to using this spell, which is the other reason I have waited so long to teach it to you. Pumping a plant so full of magic, particularly to make it grow artificially, can be very damaging. No, I don’t just mean that you will need to give it extra water and make sure it gets plenty of sun because you’ve accelerated its growth -- though this is true as well. Instead, the problem I am referring to is more serious. In the case of the Plant Growth Charm, plants can have a tendency to become dependent on the magic in order to grow. Essentially, the plant’s natural growing processes are overridden and deemed unnecessary, as magic takes over the roles usually performed by photosynthesis and absorption. If this occurs, the plant will cease growing. In extreme cases, it may even cause the plant to stop photosynthesizing and gathering water altogether, despite the fact that it is in a sunny area and being watered regularly. You can liken it to atrophied muscles. The plant will just “forget” how to do it for itself. This can either cause the plant to die, or it may cause the plant to develop into a new magical strain -- a possibility that we will cover in later years.

This does not always happen, but if your spell is overpowered, if you cast it on a weak or very small plant, or if you cast it on the same plant repeatedly, the likelihood skyrockets! Be careful with your plants, make sure you have an idea of how strong they are, and be watching your plant carefully for any adverse effects after casting. As a rule of thumb, magical plants are more resilient, whereas non-magical plants are more likely to fall subject to this dependency, as they are not as used to magical interaction.

Rosivicus
You may be wondering why I have a Rose Growth Charm included in this lesson. We just learned a charm for growing plants, after all. Well, the thing with roses is that they are rather particular. While they interact well with magic, particularly for a non-magical plant, they are stubborn and not easily encouraged to grow quickly (and therefore did not mix well with the Herbivicus Charm). Because of this, herbologists and spell creation specialists researched and created a separate charm, Rosivicus. Pronounced roh-SIH-vih-cuss, this spell works differently when compared to the previous charm. Unlike Herbivicus, Rosivicus has a bit of a delay between the spell being cast and the actual growth spurt. It may be just a few minutes or anywhere up to an hour. However, it is not the same as the Growth-Starting Charm. It will have the same effects as Herbivicus, just delayed. One good thing about Rosivicus is that the wand movement is much simpler. It is a clockwise spiral that starts from the centre and then a quick, sharp line down. It rather mimics the drawing of a single rose. Let me see you all practice the movement now. Wonderful! That was much better than Herbivicus, wasn’t it? Of course, there are the same dangers of creating magical dependency from this charm, so please do take care.

And Now for Something Completely Different...
Throughout the year, the charms that we have learned in Herbology class have been limited to those with very practical applications: charms that were necessary to you becoming star herbologists. However, everyone needs a bit of fun now and again! For the next portion of class, I have invited a very special guest to speak to you about charming some plants just for fun. Some of you may even recognize him! Please welcome -- and pay close attention to -- Mr. Levintree!

 ~~~

Hello students. For those who do not know me, I am Balfour Levintree, a former professor for Charms here at Hogwarts. I enjoy stopping by to see old colleagues and give the odd lecture. Today I’m here to enchant some plants. There are several ways that herbology and charms intersect, and your professor has done a wonderful job teaching you about the spells helpful for the cultivation and proper upkeep of plants. However, my short lecture will focus on the more whimsical side of charming plants!

Throughout your time at Hogwarts, you may have noticed singing daffodils, serenading roses, and caroling Christmas trees that spring up around Valentine’s Day, Christmas, or perhaps the odd birthday. There are an assortment of spells that can achieve this effect, but today we will focus on a charm that can make your plant sing and dance for up to a week.

You probably noticed that the list of musical herbs above included only mundane plants. Both spells you learn from me today should never be used on magical plants (unlike the spells you have covered before), as most magical plants will not particularly enjoy being forced to sing and dance and will become very temperamental, while mundane plants care little one way or the other.

The first spell we will learn today is the Singing Plant Charm. It will cause a plant to vibrate slightly at varying speeds, so that a focused sound is emitted from the end of the plant. It won’t sound like an actual voice, but will give the impression that the plant is singing. Different plants will have different “voices,” or ranges and tones, so the variety is quite vast. This charm was discovered relatively recently and was originally invented by a farmer whose rooster met an ultimately demise and needed an alternative alarm clock (his plant sang “Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love” every morning).

In order to cast the Singing Plant Charm, you must speak the incantation Tinniherbus (tih-knee-HER-bus) while flicking your wand in a quick half-circle to the left, starting with it pointing at your chest (be careful!) and ending with it pointing at the plant. You should focus on the plant, as well as the tune of the song itself while you cast the charm, and you should use low to moderate willpower to determine the volume – too much willpower and you might hurt the plant. If you are intimately familiar with the song, simply bringing it to mind may be sufficient, but actually humming it under your breath may be useful as well. If you are familiar enough -- and can focus well -- you can concentrate on a series of songs to form a ‘playlist’ of sorts. The song or songs will continue looping, with some delay if you include that in your visualization, until the magic wears off or is ended with the Effect-Cancelling Charm, Finite, which you have covered in Charms this year.

Of course, if you want a real performance, you’ll need the plant to dance as well. That’s where the Dancing Plant Charm comes in. This charm will make the plant move in a choreographed way. Keep in mind, of course, that making your wisteria waltz is going to be beyond you at this point. Movements should be very limited, perhaps a slight swaying back and forth in time with the rhythm. To cast the Dancing Plant Charm, use the incantation Saltiherbus (sal-tee-HER-bus) and wave your wand left then right so that it ends pointing toward the plant. You should focus on the plant and use low to moderate willpower, depending on the size of the plant. Additionally, concentrate on the rhythm and motions you wish your plant to make, along with any delays for pauses in the singing. This spell will also last until the magic wears out or you cancel it with the Effect-Cancelling Charm. Note that the two spells are safe to cast in combination.

With those two charms, I hope your holidays are full of song and dance, and that you find time to give these plants as gifts to make others happy, too!

~~~

Thank you, Mr. Levintree, for your enlightening guest lecture. You covered these charms with a finesse that I could not have accomplished. Perhaps I ought to bribe you more often! It is always a pleasure to have you here for a visit.

 A Brief Repotting Report
This topic would have also fit nicely earlier in the year, but alas, we just did not have the time! Perhaps it is good to leave it for last, as this topic can apply to all kinds of plants, though I admit that with the large beds we frequently use in the greenhouses this is not often an issue. Repotting is just what it sounds like: you take a plant and put it in a different pot! However, you may be wondering why we need to do this. There are two main reasons for doing so. A majority of the time, repotting is done because a plant has become too big for its britches and needs more room to continue growing. On the other side of the coin, repotting is sometimes used to help control the size of a plant that has grown too large, or whose growth you want to control or tamp down (like invasive species or unruly magical plants), in which case you would be transferring them into a smaller pot.

In cases where your plant needs a larger pot, one of a few tell-tale signs will usually be present. The first of these is that your plant will seem to absorb water abnormally fast. It may even feel completely dry just a few minutes or hours after it was watered. Secondly, if your pot or container has drainage holes, the plant’s roots may start to grow through and peek out. Lastly, if the plant seems to have stopped flowering or producing new foliage (and it is not time for the plant’s dormant season), it is generally time for a new pot.

Now that you know what to look for, let’s get right into it! The first step to repotting a plant -- and the most often overlooked -- is to water it. Watering your plant well and then letting it absorb for half an hour or so will make your plant easier to slip out of its pot! Once you have watered and waited, you will need to extract the plant. To do this manually, for most plants I recommend tapping the container lightly on a sturdy object to loosen it up, then tip the plant over, upside down, into your (gloved) hand and gently take the pot away from the plant. Some plants will require a firmer hand, the element of surprise, or more complicated untangling processes, but this is the basic procedure!

At this time, examine the roots. If they have become “pot bound,” or have grown to match the confines of the pot, you will need to break them up. You may do this by hand, gently ripping apart the root structure to loosen it up and discarding loose chunks, or you may make calculated cuts about ½ of an inch thick all the way around the outside of the roots. For cutting, a sharp knife and the Severing Charm work equally well. I know, it seems like this would hurt the plant, but it is absolutely necessary to promote growth and is not detrimental unless taken too far. If appropriate, you may save the roots you have removed for culinary, medicinal or potion use, or you may use them to attempt to grow another specimen of the same plant.

At this time, you need to make sure you have your new container. Make sure it has been cleaned, then add the necessary soil (and check the soil’s acidity or alkalinity and adjust accordingly), leaving room for the plant. Add the plant to the pot, and fill in the rest of the gaps with additional soil. Once finished, check the alkalinity and acidity once more, adjust as necessary, and then give your plant a drink to encourage the roots to start growing and mixing in with the new soil. Don’t worry, as your plant’s roots will have just been exposed to air and likely dried out quite a bit during the process, there is little-to-no chance of causing root rot, even though you’re watering the plant more than once in a day!

Now, you may have noticed my word choice above when talking about how to remove your plant from the old pot, manually. There is, indeed, a spell for this. However, it is useful to teach you both ways in case you are ever dealing with a magically overloaded plant, or plants that can only have limited contact with magic. The magical way to remove a plant from its pot comes in the form of the spell Mobiliarbus. The intent and purpose of this spell is to levitate plants as well as large, wooden objects. It is much more suitable than the Levitation Charm when repotting, as with the Levitation Charm, you are just as likely to accidentally target the pot, rather than the whole plant itself. Additionally, it helps ease the concentration component slightly, as you do not have to overtax yourself trying to focus on and visualize the entirety of the plant (or else risk only levitating one leaf or half of the plant and ripping or breaking things).

As mentioned, this charm is not just for repotting and not just for plants. It can be seen in use around Christmas, as the staff maneuvers the enormous pine trees around the castle and grounds. It can also be used to great effect on larger, wooden objects. Upon casting, a blue light will shoot towards the plant. With a simple flick of the wand, roots will detach from the soil in which they are planted and allow the caster to move the plant wherever desired. The spell’s complete details are as follows.

Closing
I have no more to teach you this year! Though, give me a break to revitalize myself, and I’m sure I can dig up something new to show you! Before you all scamper off to take your final, let us give one final “thank you” to Mr. Levintree for stopping by!

Ah, what a shame the year is already done. Still, I am glad I was able to share as much as I did. My love of plants is second only to my love of sharing knowledge with the next generation. I certainly hope some of that sunk in and that you are ready for your final! Best of luck and I will see you at the beginning of a new school year. Until then, class!

Original lesson written by Professor Lily Tudor
Guest lecture by Professor Balfour Levintree
Additional portions by Professor Venita Wessex
Image credits here, here, and here