Grow a Themed Flower Garden with your Children (2024)

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Plantingfrom seeds: In the story, red zinnias, orange daisies and marigolds,pink phlox, blue morning glories, blue cornflower, and purple astersare chosen for seeds. It would be fun to visit your local gardensupply store and have your children help you choose the seeds that will make a rainbow. Marigolds andnasturtiums are great red, yellow and orange choices for small hands.They are easy to plant and are not too picky about where they grow.You can also easily collect and save their seeds to plant again the next year.

Morning Glory ©Sarah Benton Feitlinger

Plantingfrom seedlings: The story continues on to describe the rainbowseedlings the mother and child buy: red poppies and roses, bluedelphinium, purple violets and pansies, green ferns, and pinkcarnations. My recommendations for purchasing seedlings for childrenwould be purple pansies and violas, pink impatiens and petunias in avariety of colors. These are fairly hearty and will bloom for quitesome time, two factors to keep in mind when choosing plants for younggardeners.

Plantingperennials: If you have space and the desire to grow your flowers formore than one season, you might consider some perennials other thanthe bulbs mentioned above. There are many options for color here aswell. See this infographic for some ideas.

Thesecond Lois Ehlert book that might inspire your theme garden is"Waiting for Wings". This story focuses on the life cycle ofa butterfly with simple text and brilliant illustrations. The brightflowering plants in this story are nice for butterflies, but thereare many other important pollinators you might wish to lure to yourgarden as well- like hummingbirds and bees.

Pollinatorsare very important because without them we would not have the fruits,nuts, berries and vegetables we enjoy! Planting flowers that attractbutterflies, hummingbirds and bees not only adds interest andopportunities for science exploration in the flower garden, but also can improve theproduction of your vegetable garden. You may wish to investigatepollinator gardens through the following links:

• Kids Growing Strong
• The U.S. Forest Service: Attracting Pollinators to your Garden Using Native Plants
• Pollinator Partnership: Pollinator Friendly Planting Guides (search by yourregion)

ButterflyGarden:

In"Waiting for Wings" you'll see butterflies on big, brightflowers like hollyhocks, purple coneflower, zinnias, black-eyedsusans and gaillardia.
(click on flower images for more information)

These are all lovely choices for your flowergarden. You might have even chosen some of them for your rainbowgarden! Butterflies also enjoy lilacs and milkweed. A personal favorite of mine, that will also lurehummingbirds, is bee balm. I call it the "firework flower"as this perennial's red blooms look like they are bursting open likea firework.

Bee Balm, or Monarda ©Sarah Benton Feitlinger

Pollinators love sunflowers! Sunflowers are an excellentchoice to plant with children. Many varieties have large seeds thatare easy for small hands to handle, and they are not difficult togrow.

A sunflower with a butterfly and a bee guest. ©Ross Feitlinger

There are so many options for a butterfly garden. Rather than pick your own mix of blooms you might want to choose a mix of seeds specifically aimed at attracting butterflieslike the Seeds for a Butterfly Garden pack from Renee'sGarden. This includes heirloom zinnias, white cosmos and redsunflowers.

• Kid's Gardening: Creating a Family Butterfly Garden
• National Gardening Association: Plan for a Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden
• Growing With Science: Series on Butterfly Gardening

HummingbirdGarden:

Hummingbirdsare beautiful little wonders. They are a fascinating addition to agarden. These tiny birds love red tubular flowers with lots ofnectar. Good choices are bee balm (pictured above), honeysuckles,salvias, wild bergamot (bee balm), lupines and one of my favorites, nasturtiums.

Nasturtiums ©Sarah Benton Feitlinger

Nasturtiums are a great pick for children. Not only are the seedslarge and easy to plant, but they do not require much care or evenvery good soil. In fact, they flower better in low nutrient soil!Additionally, the leaves and the flowers of the nasturtium areedible. They have a little bite like a radish. Kids love tastetesting things in the garden (with supervision of course!).

Addinga hummingbird feeder to the garden will increase your odds of havinga humming little visitor. Follow this link to Ranger Rick magazinefor a plan to make a hummingbird feeder out of recycled items. TheNational Wildlife Federation includes a recipe to make nectar foryour hummingbird feeder here.

Female ruby-throated hummingbird. ©Feitlinger

AttractingBees to the Garden:

Althoughmany of us associate bees with painful stings, they are a veryimportant part of the garden ecosystem. When left alone, they cause us no harm. There are many differenttypes of bees and if you create a flower garden described above youwill begin to attract these important insects as well. If you are avegetable gardener or have fruit trees you will see a more productiveharvest if you invite bees to your property. For extensiveinformation on bees and bee types, visit this article from Mother Earth News about different types of bees and how to attract them toyour garden.

Bees on Purple Cone Flower (Echinacea) ©SBF

Bee pollinating a squash blossom. ©SBF