Friday, September 21, 2012

Sophomore Shenanigans

Hello readers!
Sorry I've been MIA lately. The beginning of my second year of college is proving to be much more busy than I expected it to be. My excursions into horticulture are much different than they were last year, and this, along with my other classes and extra curriculars, have been keeping me on fast forward for the past three weeks. On top of my course work, every Saturday for all three weeks of the semester so far has been a football game which I'm required to rehearse for and play at for marching band. Needless to say, I've had few breaks.
The little break I have now before tomorrow's football game is the little window of time I've found to write.
Like I said before, this semester's horticulture courses are nothing like last semester. Instead of work in the greenhouse, this class is completely plant identification. Our labs consist of excursions outside around campus, learning the Latin and common names of plants. We then have to memorize these names and are quizzed every week. It's pretty tough work, but I've managed to get by pretty well so far. We have midterms next week already, so we'll see how the 20 plant identification goes. Thankfully the class is broken into sections and the final exam isn't cumulative. Instead, it's broken into herbaceous plants and woody plants, with another section that hasn't been quite determined yet for once it's to cold and snowy out for identifying plants outside to be effective.
The one setback to my year so far has been my other requirements to the horticulture major, algebra in particular. I've never been very good at math, so college algebra, a class I'm required to take to enter into the college that offers the horticulture major, has been very difficult for me. Chemistry is going somewhat better, but it's a hard class to keep track of with everything else happening.
With that update, I'll leave you with some pictures of the plants we've been identifying in class.









4 comments:

  1. At first I thought the title of your post was a plant! I think I know the plants in your photos except the fourth, which looks very exotic, I've not seen it in Britain. Good luck with remembering all those names!

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    1. Thanks! :) The common name is Pink Turtlehead. I hadn't heard of it before this class either, but it's definitely showing up in more gardens around Minnesota.

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  2. Great pictures and what a neat potential course of study. If I had it to do over, I would major in Archeology with a minor in Horticulture. With electives in golf, landscape design, etc, and the list goes on. Relish these times in your life. College was so fun!

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    1. I almost majored in Anthropology (through which you can focus in archeology) actually before I got infatuated with the horticulture major. If I had more time in my schedule I'd love to go back and minor in it but since I decided on a major relatively late I might not have the time to do it. And I agree. Even though I complain about homework and tests, it's still a lot of fun. :)

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