Life’s Horticultural Lessons: by Tom Butzler

As a parent, I try to teach my kids many of the things I have learned over a lifetime both formally and informally. The past couple of weeks have provided me ample opportunity to show them some lessons in the horticultural world.

Know More than the Three Leaves
Anyone who has spent time outside in the woods with their kids has probably taught them "leaves of three let it be." This old saying is a way for kids to identify the characteristic leaf shape of poison ivy. When bare skin comes into contact with the leaves, the toxic oil urushiol rubs off and causes an adverse reaction. Typical symptoms are red, blistering rashes that itch.

Posion ivy vines are very
characteristic with a 'fuzzy rope' look.
  Click on picture to enlarge

Poison ivy is a vining creature and will tend to crawl and climb over an area and other nearby objects. The vine can get quite thick but it does have a unique characteristic in that it is very hairy and looks like a fuzzy rope. My kids are great at identifying poison ivy leaves but I have failed miserably in having them identify other plant parts such as the vine itself.

One day, I took my kids to my son’s cross county meet. I watched the race while my two younger kids played in an open field and around a small tree. The next day, the two kids had rashes all over their face and hands. It looked like poison ivy but they were playing in an open field where there was no habitat for this plant. After looking at the rash for three days, I could find no other explanation other than it was poison ivy. I took a trip to the cross country site, the only place that I knew they were playing outside earlier that week. As soon as I crested the hill, I saw it. The ‘tree’ looked out of place in this open field and I walked over to it. It was no tree but a massive poison ivy vine that had climbed an old fence post. To a young child, it looked like a small tree to play around and under.

Honeybees Sting
My dad has a saying that he would repeat over and over as I was growing up, “don’t do dumb things”. Pretty much it says that you shouldn’t do dumb things. I have repeated this mantra to my kids but I’m not sure it has sunk in.

I have several hives on my property to supply us and friends with local honey. My kids work the honeybees with me sometimes and have occasionally gotten stung. I suppose it is a rite of passage if keeping bees. The point is that they know bees sting and it hurts.



Baseball bat dropped at the 'crime scene'

 On Halloween day, my oldest son and his friend decided to check out my honeybees. Being below 55 degrees, they were hunkered down in the hive and minding their own business. These two bright young men decided that taking a baseball bat to the hive was a great way to see how the bees reacted. The bees poured out of the hive as the bat repeatedly hit the boxes.

I wasn’t present at the time but my wife stated the two came running through the yard hollering and screaming into the house. No sympathy was felt on my part when a bee stung my son right under the eye. His left side of the face swelled up, as bee stings normally do, and we gave him ice. Over the next three days, the swelling got worse and a trip to the emergency room was necessary.

Both my son and I learned a new term that day, cellulitis. Cellulitis is where bacteria get into the skin and spread to deeper tissues by way of a cut or insect bite. Without anti-biotic treatment, it can lead to some serious complications.

I suspect my kids will still get poison ivy over the years as I have not found a way to identify the vine in the dark when they are playing spotlight. With certainty, I can say that my kids will never hit my beehives with a baseball bat again.