Categories: Flower Gardens

Five Fun Flowers for Kids Garden

Children and gardens naturally go together whether you design a special children’s garden or your garden just attracts kids. There are many ways we can encourage children to garden and enjoy gardening by planting fun flowers and plants especially just for them. Children prefer doing active things in the garden: help your child to select their own flower, plant or seed packet at the garden center and then plant it when you get home. Emphasize the rewards of gardening – look how tall this flower is, or smell this leaf, or can you count all these baby plants – rather than the chores. Over the years I have found some special flowers that kids just plain seem to like: here are five fun flowers for you to try growing with your child. Some of these are fast growing annuals (More on What’s an Annual — What’s a Perennial?), some do well in pots or containers or indoors, some are colorful, some are just a little weird. But they are all easy and fun, dare we say child’s play, to grow! I hope you and your child enjoy growing these flowers in your garden, whether it is a special kids’ garden or a grown-up garden where kids visit and play.

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Kids Love to Grow Sunflowers:

Everybody knows these big golden yellow annual flowers. The seeds are big and easy to handle, the skinny stems grow straight up to the sky and get taller than your head, the plants make giant flowers, and you — or the birds — can eat the seeds. (Make sure your child understands to never eat a plant in the garden without permission from an adult.)

Plant the sunflower seed directly in the garden where you want the plant to grow. Look for the words “mammoth” or “giant ” or “tall” if you want the tall kind with one gigantic flower at the top. You can also plant cutting sunflowers (more than one flower per plant but the flowers are smaller) or a mini variety for a window box or planter such as “Elf” or “Teddy”. (More on Flowers in Pots and Planters.)

Impatiens are Great Flowers for Children to Grow:

These annual flowers will bloom all summer and do well in shady spots; good for the garden or in pots or containers, can be grown on the windowsill, too. They come in many exciting child-appealing colors from red and orange to hot pink and violet, even stripes. Usually sold as transplants already in bloom, so no there’s no waiting for the flowers. When you touch a green seed pod, the seeds fly out at you: watch out! We call these flowers ‚”Poppers.” (More on Shady Flower Gardens.)

Plant Lady’s Mantle for a Magical Child’s Garden:

This is a perennial plant (Alchemilla mollis) that comes back every year. It has very big leaves that hold drops of dew or moisture on their surface. The water droplets sparkle like diamond jewels in the sunshine. We call this the ‚”Diamond Plant” and think it is magical. It is perfect for planting in a Fairy Garden. (More on Fairy Garden Design .)

Kids Can Pick These Scented Geraniums:

There are many different kinds of scented geraniums (Pelargonium), but they all have fragrant foliage. Some of them have pretty flowers, too, but basically this is a ‚”scratch and sniff” plant to have a lot of fun with. You might even want to make a collection of scented geraniums. Look for different scents such as rose perfume, lemon, mint, chocolate, pine, nutmeg and so on. Fun to swap and trade. Good houseplant, too. (More on Fragrant Flower Gardening.)

Hens and Chicks for Every Children’s Garden:

A perennial plant for a sunny place with well drained soil, or grow in a pot. This plant (Sempervivum) has many cute names including Cats and Kittens as well as Hens and Chicks. The reason for the names is the center plant acts like the mother and multiplies itself by offsets, little baby plants. You can propagate or increase this plant by separating off the little babies and setting them right side up on the soil surface. They will root and make new plants! And when it finally blooms, well, this is one weird looking flower. Weird, but fun. (More on Animal Theme and ABC Gardens.)

Garden with Children: Children are our Future Gardeners

I hope this gives you a few suggestions for fun flowers to grow when gardening with your children, your grandkids, or to share with the kids in your neighborhood. Every time a child notices or enjoys a garden or a plant, that’s another kindred gardener in the making!