petrification and lawsuits/obtaining mandrakes

[christi0469]

No: HPFGUIDX 33551

---> 
> A related question, since the subject came up:  I wondered as I 
read 
> CoS... are mandrakes that rare that no mature ones could be 
acquired 
> for months, from anywhere?  I just wondered why Madame Pomfrey, 
Snape 
> or Dumbledore didn't send for some from Diagon Alley, so that the 
> stricken students didn't have to spend most of a term petrified.  
> 
> 
> Barbara

 I found some information about mandrake plants. You obtain the best 
results by planting the seeds in the spring and carefully repotting 
the plants in late August, and it takes a few years for them to 
mature. I'm not a gardener, but it seemed to me that mandrakes 
require more than average care. JKR changes this a bit in CoS, as 
the students transplant the mandrakes in early September and the 
plants mature over a 9 to 10 month period. Using JKR's ammended view 
all mandrakes would be immature until June (IMHO, of course).

Christi