How flowers grow

During springtime, you’ve probably seen tiny green plants start to peek up above the ground. Soon some of those plants will grow beautiful flowers! Discover the miracle of plants with the science projects and other fun things to do in this issue.

Fill the cup about 3/4 full with potting soil. Push a seed along the side of the cup into soil. Cover the hole with soil. You should be able to see the seed from the outside of the cup, but not the top. Repeat all around the cup, leaving a little room to grow in between each seed. Water the soil. It should be moist, but the water should soak in and not stay on top of the soil. Set your cup in a windowsill or another warm, sunny spot. Turn the cup every few days to make sure all of the seeds get sunlight. Look at your seeds every day and water them whenever the soil looks dry.

What Happened: When you gave the seeds the right conditions, you saw how flowers grow within only a few days! What conditions did you provide for your seeds? You gave them soil, water, sunlight, and warmth. A plant needs all of those conditions in order to grow.

You can probably see tiny roots growing from your seeds down into the soil. Plants use roots to get water and nutrients from the soil. You should also be able to see a small green stem sprouting up above the soil. This stem will continue to grow from the nutrients and water it gets from the roots. The plant will eventually grow leaves. Leaves use sunlight to make and store more food for the plant to use as it keeps growing. Soon your little plants will be too big for the plastic cup. Ask an adult to help you find a place outside or in a large pot where you can plant them and continue to watch them grow.

After awhile, the plants will grow little buds that will bloom into flowers. The flowers will eventually turn into a fruit; in this case, they will grow into bean pods! Inside of these fruits is where more seeds are formed for the next batch of plants to grow from. If the flowers of a plant don’t grow into a fruit, the seeds are formed inside the flower instead.

Mini Flower Garden This project has two parts: In the first part you’ll plant flower seeds in an egg carton and watch them sprout into plants. In the second part, you will experiment to see what happens if your plants don’t get enough water or sunlight. Ask an adult to help you do this project!