1. Pressing and Drying the Fast Plants

   Place the plants (root and all if you like) between sheets of dry newspaper and press them using a flower press or a heavy book. The plants are delicate and dry easily. Within two or three days you will have nicely dried plants. Try cutting them off at soil level or remove the entire plant and rinse the soil from the roots. When the plants are laminated, you will have a nice comparison of the height of the plants at various stages of development.

2. Laminating the Dried Fast Plants

   Prepare a card and two pieces of clear, adhesive laminating paper. Chose a size that will also accommodate larger plants when they are further along in their growth and development. Some mature plants may be 20 cm tall so plan ahead for that size of cards. You can always cut them down later if the cards are too tall. The cards will look like bookmarks - tall and relatively thin. Consider printing a centimeter scale on the side of the card.

   • Remember that the dried Fast Plants are very delicate and take care not to break them in handling. Place the pressed plant on the card near the bottom - at the zero mark on your scale if you have printed one on the card. If you are including the root, draw your scale so that it goes in both directions with the soil level as zero. You may want to use a small bit of transparent tape to hold the stem of the plant in place. Before you place the plant on the card, you may want to note the age of the plant or other information.

   • Take a piece of laminating paper and peel off the backing. Start at one end of the "bookmark" and press the sticky side of the laminating sheet down on top of the plant and the card. Repeat these steps for the back of the card and trim off the excess laminating paper.

3. Comparing Developmental Changes

   As you collect several preserved specimens of Fast Plants, at various stages of the life cycle, arrange them in series for comparison and discussion. You might assemble the set with a ring or place them up on a bulletin board.

The mounted plants can be easily photo copied! The silhouettes look great and depict the changes in the plants nicely.

Have fun, and keep in touch - let us know how this works!