garden blossoms fold and mail stationery

Use masking tape or duct tape to bundle the cardboard plant sandwiches together - use enough cardboards so the package is rigid. Dill’s excellent information and legible handwriting!! The Herbarium staff will use this working label to compose a label printed on 100% cotton, acid-free archival paper for the specimen. Compose a “ working label” with collection date, location, plant name, collector(s) names, and habitat data. Once your plant(s) have dried, remove the foam rubber and save for future pressing needs. Leave in an air conditioned place for a month or so. Children are particularly enthusiastic about standing on the press so you can tighten straps further.įear Not! If you do not have a plant press, a stack of hefty books placed on your cardboard-plant sandwich will suffice. Place plants in press and tighten straps. Place specimen in single fold of labeled newspaper.ĭouble decker sandwich: corrugated cardboard, plant in single newspaper fold, foam rubber, corrugated cardboard (repeat as needed!) Again, label single fold of newspaper with information. I decided to press a second specimen - a sterile basal rosette which was growing nearby. This will endure that the thicker portion of the plant (typically roots or twigs) do not impede the complete pressing of thinner portions of plant (typically leaves and flowers).

Note that I have bent the longest flowering stem so that it fits in the newspaper, and ultimately will fit onto the herbarium sheet.Ĭlose sheet of newspaper over your plant and place sheet of foam rubber on top. Use merely a SINGLE fold of newspaper - more prevent the plant from drying. On a single fold of newspaper write date, plant name, location, collector name. (If a shrub or tree, a branch about 16″ long with flower/fruit.) Remember your specimen or specimen segment should be less than 16″ long. I use the app iNaturalist (free!) on my smart phone to take photos of the plants I collect and to get the latitude/longitude of the location.Ĭollect plant - use trowel or garden shears if necessary. It is very handy to have a compass on your smart phone which can provide latitude/longitude of your collecting location. An herbarium sheet is a cubit in length = the length from your fingertips to your elbow. Optional but extremely useful: foam rubber cut to 11″ X 17″.

Items you need: corrugated cardboard (2 per specimen) cut to about 11″ X 17″, a single fold of newspaper (cut to 11 X 17). Optional but very helpful: a smart phone which gives latitude/longitude coordinates or has iNaturalist app. Optional but very helpful: foam rubber, cut into rectangles 11″ X 16″Ī stack of heavy books (or a plant press with straps) Optional but handy: a trowel, and perhaps a set of garden shears / scissors (depending on size of plant)Ģ pieces of corrugated cardboard per plant specimen, the cardboard cut into rectangles 11″ X 16″ Single folds of newspaper, cut to 16″ in length, one fold for each plant Poorly pressed specimens or specimens lacking sufficient information on locality will be rejected by the Curatrix. You, alas, are not famous enough for “my back yard” to be sufficient locality data. ONLY you know where you collected the plant. If a plant is 5 feet tall, you will have to cut it into segments, each no longer than 16″!

Interested in making an herbarium specimen? There are a few things to keep in mind, and a few materials you’ll need.īe sure you have permission to collect from the place where the plant grows.Īn herbarium specimen is mounted on paper which is 11.5″ wide by 16.5″ long - so a specimen can be no bigger than that.

Garden blossoms fold and mail stationery