A mom in rural Illinois is getting ready to help her daughter learn botany from a local botanical nursery.
Dorianna McBride said she was excited when her daughter, Lizzie, asked her to help with her favorite hobby.
The oldest of four kids, Lizzy has been studying botany since kindergarten.
McBride has seen the growth in her daughter’s interest.
Her mom has been growing and preserving plants for a long time, and she has found that her daughter is always curious about something new.
So, she said, she was happy when she saw Lizzies interest in botany.
“I think we can do better,” McBride told ABC News.
“She was just excited.
I told her to look into it and we will talk about it and see how it goes.”
After Lizzieds first year of nursery school, McBride and her husband, Gary, started preparing her for her first job.
The job pays $30,000 a year.
It’s a good pay, she told ABCNews.com.
“It’s not all that much, but it is what it is,” she said.
But, she added, she has to be careful because she will be working with plants that are invasive, like the Asian stinkweed.
“We will be dealing with these plants and I’m sure that they will cause problems,” she explained.
“Lizzie has always loved growing plants and plants are very important to her, so I have a lot of questions that she wants answered and I think we have a good opportunity.”
After two years of preparation, McBrides first job was at a garden center in the state of Indiana.
But then she had a question.
“Do you know about the Asian stingweed?” she asked her daughter.
“Yeah,” Lizzy answered.
“Well, can I see it?”
McBride asked.
“You have to go ahead and do that.
They’re very invasive,” she told her daughter.”
Lizzies response to her question was to ask her father to bring her a plant.”
McBrides son, John, is now teaching his mother how to grow the Japanese bergamot.””
I’m not sure how she knows it’s an invasive species.”
McBrides son, John, is now teaching his mother how to grow the Japanese bergamot.
“John brought us the plant, and we’re growing it,” McBris told ABCNEWS.com, “but we’re going to have to start small.”
“So, I’m really excited about it, but I have to make sure that I’m getting the right plant,” Mcbrides said.
“Just like any other hobby,” she added.
“So I’m definitely not going to be able to go on forever, but this is something that I can do.
It will be a great learning experience for me.”
And with that, Mcbrings youngest son, Matthew, came in and started growing the plant.
McBries youngest son also has the same passion for botany as his father.
And he has been training his mom to grow plants for years.
But it is his passion that he is now helping her to start growing.
“Matthew has been very excited about growing this plant, because I think I have grown the Japanese bog plant,” she admitted.
“Now, I have an idea, but Matthew is going to get the whole process down on paper,” McBroshies husband Gary said.
After two months of training, Matthew was ready to begin.
“What I am really excited to do is grow a Japanese bog,” Matthew said.
McBride said that is one of the most difficult plants to grow, but she will make sure to take her time and make sure she does it right.
“Make sure that it is in the right place,” she advised.
“It needs to be watered regularly and the soil should be well-drained, and you have to keep the plant well-tended.”
McBride has spent her whole life growing plants, but her passion for them has taken over her.
“Growing a plant has always been a passion for me,” she shared.
“The plants have always been very important and it’s been a big part of who I am.
So it’s really a big deal for me to be working on that plant.”
McBRides passion for growing plants has grown over the years, and now she is working on getting a new hobby into her life.
“This is the next step in getting my career started,” she exclaimed.
“So, that’s the big thing for me.
I have always loved making things, but now it’s a career that I want to have.”
For more information on botany visit: www.aadn.org
