What is an easy to grow/maintain flower to do with a child?

[John Salerno]

This weekend I went to the arboretum with my 4-year old nephew and he found the free seeds that they were giving away to grow flowers. He took a pack and seemed interested in doing it, so I thought I might try to do this with him as a way to show him how to plant and grow a flower. Except the seeds he got seemed like they were fairly complicated to grow, with instructions for different seasons and different times of day.

 

So I'm wondering if someone could suggest a type of flower that could easily be grown by itself in a small pot, something that I could let him plant and water perhaps once or twice a day, without much more maintenance than that. Just a little "starter" plant, so to speak.

 

Thanks.

[pwagen]

I grew up with cactus plants!

 

Not the kind that grows in the desert, but smaller versions. I can always look up what kinds I had, if you're interested.

 

They're very easy to handle. They're very forgiving, you can forget about giving them water for a few days and still come back to them alive, and some of them don't look too shabby either. And the small ones don't sting that bad if you touch them...

 

I was probably a little older than 4 when I got mine though. But still, throwing that idea out there!

[ewmon]

How about useful veggies instead of ornamental flowers?

 

This is a amazing experiment with whatever you choose to grow. Get an empty 2- or 3-liter plastic soda bottle and remove its label. Cut off the bottle's top at the "shoulder" — where the sides begin to curve inward toward the spout. Line the sides with 1 or 2 sheets of dark "construction paper" or similar material (that is, something that tends to lose its strength when wet). Fill the space inside with planting soil up to, but not over, the tops of the paper. Add enough water to moisten the soil and the paper, but don't waterlog the soil too much.

 

Buy maybe three different packages of seeds for veggies that your nephew enjoys eating (corn, radish, beans, carrot, etc). Slip one or two seeds from each packet between the bottle and the paper at the prescribed depth below ground level (although this isn't very critical), trying to leave room for the roots to grow downward.

 

Place the bottle in a sunny window. Keep it watered and turn it halfway around every day so each baby plant gets its share of sunlight. Everyone can watch the seeds grow into their favorite veggies. Plant the rest of the packets in regular starter pots (or maybe egg cartons ... you were saving them all winter, weren't you?). Any plants in the bottle that will grow too large for the bottle (corn, squash, etc) will need to be transplanted into the garden, but smaller plants such as radishes, beans, maybe carrots, etc can probably stay in the bottle.

[michel123456]

A child is impatient, you must find something that grows quickly.

Peas.

No commercial but in some shops they sell amusing puppet heads made of natural fiber with growing vegetation in place of hair. Very funny and instructive. I'll try to find a link.

 

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something similar to Mr Box Head here

Edited May 5, 2011 by michel123456

[John Salerno]

A child is impatient, you must find something that grows quickly.

Peas.

No commercial but in some shops they sell amusing puppet heads made of natural fiber with growing vegetation in place of hair. Very funny and instructive. I'll try to find a link.

 

-------------------------------

 

something similar to Mr Box Head here

 

Hmm, good point. About how long would it take for most flowers to grow?

[CaptainPanic]

Sunflowers grow fast, they are useful (food), and they have a flower.

 

It obviously takes all the growing season, but it grows so fast that it doesn't matter. You can start off with some seeds in small pots, and then move them to the garden once they are 15-20 cm tall.

[lemur]

Just mix some potting soil with water in a pot and put the seeds you bought into the soil, just deep enough to be sure they stay moist. Then keep the soil moist about like a sponge that has just been squeezed empty but is still wet. In fact, it's not that important exactly how wet the soil is as long as it stays wet. After a few days, you should see the seeds sprout and if you keep them watered, they may bloom at some point. I don't know if they're fickle enough not to bloom because of the seasonal issues you mention, but it's hard to imagine they won't. The only thing I think you should watch out for is if you're keeping them outdoors and it's hot, keep them in the shade as direct summer sun tends to kill plants, in my experience.

 

edit: now that I think about, whenever I grow vegetables my concern is usually that they WILL flower and seed too fast instead of continuing to produce edible leaves so I think your flowers are going to bloom one way or the other - it's just a question of how long they'll grow before blooming.

Edited May 5, 2011 by lemur

[StringJunky]

+1 on sunflowers, your nephew will be impressed with the height, growth rate and then there's a nice big sunny flower at the end of it.

[zapatos]

African violets are small, cheap, easy to grow, and flower a lot. They like higher humidity so you can add in the new task of 'misting' the plant, or you can set the flower pot on a pan full of pebbles and keep water in the pebbles to create a micro environment of humidity.

 

If you do vegetables you get to eat it at the end, but some are interesting when they flower. If you let brocolli grow beyond when you normally harvest it you'll see the entire head bloom.

[Doc. Josh]

Venus fly trap? That will certinly impress a 4 year old More plausable is a few diffrent ones so he can see the diffrence and know why and how they are diffrent. I dont believe it to be to much trouble, A flower for beuty a veggie for health and cacti for evolutionary defense ....maybe...

[John Salerno]

Venus fly trap? That will certinly impress a 4 year old

 

Actually, yes! I mentioned a Venus fly trap when we were going into the arboretum, and my nephew suddenly seemed obsessed with seeing one. He asked about it several times but I don't think they had one there. But is it possible to grow them? I know you can sometimes buy them (I used to want one when I was little too, and I think Kroger sometimes sold them!). But do you keep them indoors? If so, how do you feed them? I don't imagine my sister has a lot of flies in her house.

 

And if I remember correctly, I believe the seeds my nephew picked up were called Columbine flowers. The flower was yellow, I remember that much.

Edited May 5, 2011 by John Salerno

[Doc. Josh]

It appears to be alot fun to have one the care sheet http://www.flytrapcare.com/store/venus-fly-trap-care-sheet explains it all and it's quite interesting that a plant ((hunts)) flys. Happy Hunting..Or trapping!

[michel123456]

Mimosa Pudica is very impressive:

 

 

But the easiest and fastest is lentil.

[CaptainPanic]

Personally, I would wait with the fly traps and sensitive plants until the kid is a few years older.

 

A fast growing plant or big flower (lentil, beans or sunflower) is impressive enough... and part of the experience now is that the child gets responsibility of the plant in the first place. When putting seeds in the ground and watering plants (and possibly getting incredibly dirty from all the sand, and soaking wet from the water) isn't interesting anymore, you can move on to more interesting plants.

 

Personally, I still think that ordinary vegetables and herbs the most interesting plants, because you get to eat them at the end.

Edited May 9, 2011 by CaptainPanic

[michel123456]

because you get to eat them at the end.

 

Excellent point.

[John Salerno]

A fast growing plant or big flower (lentil, beans or sunflower) is impressive enough...

 

What's a good example of that?

[TonyMcC]

In my childhood a favourite with kids was mustard and cress which can be quickly grown on a tray containing blotting paper. It can then be eaten. http://www.bigeyedowl.co.uk/activities-growing.htm

[CaptainPanic]

A fast growing plant or big flower (lentil, beans or sunflower) is impressive enough...

What's a good example of that?

Lentil, beans and sunflower are the examples.

 

You can just go to the garden shop, and ask for 'lentil', or 'beans' or 'sunflower'.

Edited May 10, 2011 by CaptainPanic

[John Salerno]

Lentil, beans and sunflower are the examples.

 

You can just go to the garden shop, and ask for 'lentil', or 'beans' or 'sunflower'.

 

Oops, somehow I glazed over that in your post!

 

Thanks!

[FarmForest Research]

A bean its grows fast and he can eat it and fart.

[Edtharan]

Some species of bamboo are really fast growing (Some up to 1 metre per day): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo

[shellibranch]

A child is impatient, you must find something that grows quickly.

Peas.

No commercial but in some shops they sell amusing puppet heads made of natural fiber with growing vegetation in place of hair. Very funny and instructive. I'll try to find a link.

 

-------------------------------

 

something similar to Mr Box Head here

 

Yeah! Totally agree. After planting, kids will keep checking the plant. If it grows very slowly which is normal to its own cycle, kids may abandon it and lose the interest.