derek thomas is here.isn't there an album called the secret life of plants. >> there is. >> people talk about talking to their plants if you are astute to the cues, your plants talk to you not very wellly but signs what is going on with their -- not verbally but signs what is going on with their leaves. >>> you have examples. >> this is an american box wood the greener foilage is the correct foilage this foilage is telling us, a couple things a, there is a nutrient deficiency happening in the soil most likely lime, but, the fact that the soil has -- the plant has started to turn yellow, tells us, that this is what it should look like, this tells you that something is actually wrong. >>> now, not all the time are yellow leaves something bad. we talked about this, earlier, these are -- this plant is experiencing a little bit of stress but this plant which has gone completely dry, has actually gone dormant the way you know that, is you see the really nice buds there, that is next year's growth. >> okay. >> if

derek thomas joins us now.reat idea you came up with this and pitched this it is fantastic let's talk about what you are going to do use some stuff you find around the house. >> stuff you will have in your kitchen. okay basically what it will do is help the kids a little bit with the doldrums of mid- winter, and also, yourself because you are going to be teaching the kids about nurture and a little bit about horticulture, a little bit of school. >> we want you to get your kids to do some of this stuff and then when they complete some of these experiments and fun tasks, send in pictures of the kid and experiments, to our facebook page we will show some on the air. >> please document it, send it to the facebook page and document it so we can you know, definitely let the viewers see what they were missing out on. >> you are doing fruits and vegetables. >> this happens a lot this time of year you get the onions, they have been grown and usually harvested in august or so and then stored and they are pumped into the

our expert, derek thomas joins us now. why are people afraid of the orchid?e's an orchid killer. be honest. >> orchids are some of the simpliest plants to grow. they really are. i think people mistreat them. they're air plants. they do not have roots or anything else than gathering nutrients through the air and through rain and things like that. we tend to plant them in the wrong medium. there are hundreds and hundreds of different types. this one is a hybrid, which has been created by crossing two different orchids from different families. they're beautiful, but they tend to be a little bit more difficult for a beginner. but i wanted to bring that on to set, so people can see what you can aspire to get up to. what we want to talk about is the care and maintenance of basically what is called the moth orchid. it's one of the simpliest you can grow. it reblooms relybly. you need good air circulation, good light, good humidity. i use a mister. with these -- >> the right pot? >> the right pot. the right potting mix. we'll talk about that in just a second. the gre

sorry that threw me off for some reason, derek thomas joins us he will show us fun projects that involve we will be right back  >> good morning welcome back i am tony perkens. >> i am alison seymour. heated exchange between president barack obama and jan brewer. >>> several dc schools get bad reviews a new report says they need to be turned around or shut down. stacey cohan is live with results. >> a new way to get around town, uber the ride is fancier than a cab but also got a fancier price tag. >>> if you have kids, or if you don't you don't want the miss this story a local mother welcomes four more babies to the world, we will talk to her about her one day old quadruplets. >>> congratulations let's say that now. >> before we get to weather we want to tell you metro is dealing with the red line. >>> as a result, trains are single tracking between friendship heights and van eases with delays up to 30 minutes, both direction. >>> in the meantime tucker barnes is in the weather center he has a look at this thursday not bad tuck. >> temperature wise not bad alison we h