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 for them. Children love to get involved in the gardening and it teaches them a lot about nature, nurturing their environment at the same time.
You could help your child to select their own flower, plant or seed packet at the garden centre and then plant it when you get home.
Emphasise the rewards of gardening – look how tall this flower is, smell this leaf, or enjoy harvesting your crops if you’ve grown fruits or vegetables – rather than the chores of feeding and watering your plants.
Over the years I have found some special flowers that kids just seem to love: here are five fun flowers for you to try growing with your children. Some of these are fast growing annuals, some do well in pots or containers or indoors, some are colourful, some are just a little weird.
But they are all easy and fun, dare I say child’s play, to grow!
Kids love to grow Sunflowers:
Everybody knows these big golden yellow annual flowers. The seeds are big and easy for children to handle, the skinny stems grow straight up to the sky and if you are lucky may get taller than your head. The plants make giant flowers, and you (or the birds) can eat the seeds.
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. Or a mini variety for a window box or planter such as “Elf” or “Teddy”.
Impatiens are great flowers for children to grow:
These annual flowers will bloom all summer and do well in shady spots within your garden; good for the garden or in pots or containers they can be grown on the windowsill, too.
They come in many exciting child-appealing colours 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!
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.
You can also make the planting fun by reusing things you have around the house, an old car tyre makes a great fairy garden or perhaps Mummy or Daddy was gifted a Hamper selection for a special occasion, these wicker hampers can make for beautiful planters as they already have drainage gaps at the bottom.
Kids can pick 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. These also make good houseplants too.
Hens and Chicks for every children’s garden
A perennial plant for a sunny place with well-drained soil, or grown 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 centre 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.
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 grandchildren, or to share with the kids in your neighbourhood. Every time a child notices or enjoys a garden or a plant, that’s another kindred gardener in the making!
