This week's fun activity... Tie Dyed Flowers

The stem of a plant: allows the plant to grow tall and reach more sunlight provides space for leaves and flowers to grow has an extremely important job of transporting water from the roots to the all the parts of the plant that need it.  When you place flowers in a vase, the stem constantly draws up water for the flowers to keep them alive.  For this week's activity we're going to change the color of a flower using stems and colored water!

Materials: White flowers (daisies, chrysanthemums, roses, carnations, etc.) Food coloring Plastic cups Water Sharp scissors or knife

Step 1 - Trim Cut the stems short enough so that the flowers can comfortably stand in your plastic cups.   Leave between 2-4 inches of height above the cup.   Remove any leaves or thorns from the stem.

Step 2 - Dry Leave your cut flowers out to dry for 30 minutes.  This will make them “thirsty” and speed up the coloring process.

Step 3 – Color Fill your plastic cups with water and add food coloring.   Be generous with the dye; the darker the color the easier it will show in the flowers.   Do not use gel type food coloring, it does not work as well as the liquid type.

Step 4 (Optional) - Split The stem can be split in half by very carefully cutting from the bottom up with a sharp scissors or knife. This step should be done by an adult. If you’re feeling creative, you can cut it into thirds or even fourths.   Be sure to leave about 2 inches of solid, uncut stem below the flower.

Step 5 – Place Place your flowers in the colored water cups.  If you split the stems, place each piece in a different cup.

Step 6 – Wait Leave your flowers in the cups to absorb water.   Your flowers will start to show colors in a couple of hours, but waiting longer will make the colors brighter and more vivid!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR FBBG MEMBERSHIPS  We are continually renewing memberships and processing new ones. You will receive a temporary card in the mail until we are able to send out your complete membership packets. Membership questions? Please contact  Dkoepsel@fbbg.org You can easily purchase a membership on-line by clicking here . THANK YOU!

We’d love to see your creativity! Tag us on:  Facebook ( Friends of Boerner Botanical Gardens )  Twitter (@FBBG) or Instagram (friendsofbbg)  to show off your Tie Dye flowers or any of our weekly activities!

Please continue to watch for our weekly activities...  fun learning for ALL ages!