Easy Flowers for kids, Ideas please :)

[northepaul]

Hi all
I am hoping to be doing an activity with some of the kids in the after-school club where they decorate a tub (margerine etc) and plant some seeds to take home and either keep a diary or bring them back later and we (if we get permission) will plant them around the school.

School is very anti grow your own, so cant do veg, and wondered if you could give me some ideas of really easy flowers to grow please?

I already have marigolds down, but could do with a bigger selection. The kids range from 4 to nearly 7.

Thanks all

[vicky]

Sunflowers, cornflowers, nasturtiums, poppies and bulbs but they're more autumn than spring

[lainey lou]

Anti grow your own? Are they nuts? Good for you getting in there and getting the kids to grow something!
Vickys suggestions are good, the kids at our school gardening club loved growing sunflowers last year and comparing height, size of flowers etc!
You could use something like a butterfly mix, sweet peas (nice big seeds for little fingers) or if you wanted to rebel and grow something edible you could get them to sow threir initial in cress seeds.

[Nicos]

poached egg plants..dead easy!

'Poached egg' plant / RHS Gardening

[northepaul]

Thanks all, they have to be something that kids wont really require any help to nurture, stuff thats tough and can still come through even with some neglect.

Poached eggs, fab thanks
Cant be sunflowers/sweetpeas cos the school would object the the height, also they have to be harmless if anyone accidently eats them (the flower beds are accessable by kids, particularly young ones) so that rules out sweetpeas.

Cant be bulbs because that would require funding and I dont have any, also I am not sure how edible daffs and tulips are??

[Mrs Jackson]

You can get dwarf sunflowers too, it wouldn't have to be the big ones. My boys grew Calendula, Nasturtiums and Cornflowers last year, they're all pretty easy and colourful.

[di]

poached egg plants..dead easy!

'Poached egg' plant / RHS Gardening

Don't say that...mine never grow

Love in the Mist is an easy one with a great seed head once it stops flowering.

[Two_Sheds]

Gardening is so dangerous, children could eat a leaf, or a flower, or the mud ... or, fgs are they just frightened of losing car park space?

[northepaul]

Dont want any excuses as to why we cant plant them in the flower beds (if they can find an excuse they will! )
NB They would rather have empty beds, methinks

[Two_Sheds]

Little dinosaur gardens are fun to make... get a seed tray, landscape it with cress/parsley or even bird seed, then put toy dinos and rocks around it. Or toy cars, or My Little Pets...

[goddess]

my daughter loved growing grass pony tails (i don't know it's full name sorry)
or it may be bunny tail i can't remeber!

[sharon 1]

pansies! I loved them so much as a child that they alone got me into gardening.

[goddess]

forget me not especially that Fifi the flower tot is a forget me not

[Two_Sheds]

my daughter loved growing grass pony tails

I've got some of those for school too

[Kristen]

Hi all
bring them back later and we (if we get permission) will plant them around the school.

Biggest problem I have when my daughter starts talking about "what shall we grow in our "garden" (its a 6 foot square!) at school" is finding things that will be up, and "doing" or done (for Veg), before the holidays.

Most stuff is just about to flower as the Summer term comes to an end ...

The thing that has given my kids the most joy to grow (in our garden rather than at school) are Gourds (but beware of the huge piles of them that HAVE to be looked after in the house all Winter!) and a Sunflower growing competition. A few seeds each and a tape measure and away you go!