Trees for Your Scavenger Hunt in Chicago

Trees are an essential part of a healthy ecosystem, as they clean the air, provide shelter for wildlife, and contribute to healthy soil for smaller plants around them. Here are some favorites you can find in Chicago:  

• Crabapple
• Dogwood
• Lilac
• Red maple
• Red oak
• River birch
• Norway spruce
• White pine

Native Plants for Your Scavenger Hunt 

Identifying native plants is super important for eco-conscious gardening and earth-keeping. Learning to identify which plants are native to Chicago is a great activity for the whole family to help promote sustainable landscaping and gardening for a lifetime. 

• Columbine
• Butterfly weed
• Bee balm
• Winterberry
• Black chokecherry
• Saskatoon
• Heritage raspberry
• Snowberry

Backyard Items for Your Scavenger Hunt 

If you want to keep your scavenger hunt limited to the backyard, here are some options you can add to your lists for a great hunt. 

• Specific annual varieties that you have in containers
• Garden vegetables
• Garden tools, such as a trowel or watering can
• Unique kinds of weeds
• Spotting wildlife
• Fallen branches with leaves attached
• Wild mushrooms (look, don’t touch!) 

You can hide garden supplies in random places around the yard if you want to make things more difficult to find for your kids! 

Additional Scavenger Hunt Items

The longer the list, the more time you get to enjoy the outdoors. Here are some additional items you can add to your list to make an awesome scavenger hunt that will keep you busy all afternoon: 

• Pinecones
• A tree changing color (2 or 3 more colors) 
• Specific kinds of birds
• Three leaf clover (4 if you’re lucky!)
• Types of bugs
• Pointy leaves 
• Pink flowers 
• Spot a chipmunk, squirrel, or rabbit!
• An evergreen
• A flower with specific numbers of petals
• Moss
• Fallen bark
• Spider webs

Tips for an Awesome Nature Scavenger Hunt 

Making a list is one thing, but you can do a few extra things to make sure that you enjoy your scavenger hunt to the max! 

Pack Supplies

Ensure you have enough snacks, water, sunscreen, and bug-repellant for everyone. This way, you won’t have to cut the fun short and can take as long as you want to finish your hunt!

Plan a Reward

Who doesn’t love a little friendly competition? Having a prize at the end of your hunt for finding the most items on the list is a great way to add competition and excitement to your hunt. 

Respect Nature in the Process

Be sure to leave nature in the same condition that you found it. Be careful not to trample any wild areas, leave the berries for the wildlife, and make sure you bring snack wrappers back with you to dispose of in the garbage. 

If you go on an awesome nature scavenger hunt in your area and discover some cool native plants that you’d like to add to your garden, visit Platt Hill Nursery in Bloomingdale and Carpentersville. We have gorgeous native plants or trees that will support local wildlife and create a fascinating and educational space for your family right at home. Contact us if you have any questions; we are always happy to help! 

Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago’s premier garden center and nursery.

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Decoupage Your Clay Pots 

Decoupage is the art of cutting up pieces of paper and gluing them onto a surface. It sounds simple enough—making it ideal for toddlers and older kids—but it produces beautiful, unique displays. Gift wrapping, paper napkins, tissue paper, or magazines are all fair game. Let the kids find their favorite images, cut them up, and glue away.

Materials: clay pots, scissors, sealants, decorative paper, decoupage glue, and a brush for applying the glue.   

Instructions: 

1. Wash the pot free of dust and debris, and let it dry. 
2. Seal the inside of the pot with a polyurethane waterproof sealant or something similar. 
3. Cut out paper designs or patterns, and glue them to the outside of the pot.
4. After the glue dries, seal the outside of the pot with a waterproof sealer.

Tips and Tricks: sealing the inside and outside of the pot prevents moisture from causing the glue to bubble or peel away. Check out the wiki-how-to instructions or this decoupage video to get a full understanding of decoupaging your clay pots. 

Chalk Painting Your Clay Pots 

Chalk painting your clay pots is another simple craft for kids, including toddlers, that leaves you with beautiful works of art. Unlike regular acrylic paint, chalk paint is a thick medium that has a matte finish resembling chalk. It’s especially good for clay or terra cotta pots because the finish has the texture of clay itself. Plus, after it dries, you can sand a few spots here and there to give it a weather-worn look. This technique is called “distressing,” and it’s one reason why chalk painting is featured on so many refurbished furniture pieces on Pinterest. 

Added bonus: chalk paint is water-soluble, making it easy to wash off and friendly to use with toddlers.

Materials: clay pots, chalk paint, brushes, jars of water, fine sandpaper, and sealant.

Instructions:

1. Wash your pots and let them dry. 
2. Start painting. 
3. Let your first paint layer dry and apply more layers with different colors, as desired. 
4. “Distress,” or add a weathered look to your pots by gently sanding away spots on the rims, edges, or where desired.
5. After the paint dries, apply a wax sealant.  

Tips and Tricks: applying a sealant will let your paint withstand the elements outside. A wax sealant is best for chalk painting because it preserves the chalk-like texture, whereas a polyurethane sealant gives it a glossy finish. 

Color Blocking Clay Pots

Color blocking is a painting technique that yields bold and brightly-colored containers, just the thing to attract young kids and toddlers to the garden. In this craft, you use painter’s tape or a stencil to create blocks of color. They can be diagonal, wavy, straight, or any shape. The key is to contrast eye-catching tones with sharp boundaries to create a modern look.             

Materials: clay pots, paint, brushes, jars of water, and sealant.

Instructions:

1. Wash your pots and let them dry. 
2. Paint one color on the pot and let the paint dry. 
3. Create an edge with painter’s tape and paint another block of color up to that edge. Let paint dry before removing the tape. Continue to tape and paint as many blocks as desired.  
4. After the paint dries, apply a sealer.  

Tips and Tricks: this technique works with several kinds of paint, including spray paint, acrylics, or chalk paint. 

Decorating terra cotta and clay pots not only gives the kids a fun craft but is just one more way to get them involved in the garden. The flowers are that much more special when you’ve decorated the pot yourself. Decoupage, chalk painting, and color blocking will all yield appealing designs for toddlers, teenagers, and even adults. 

Visit our nurseries in Bloomingdale and Carpentersville to pick up any flowers or pots you need!

Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago’s premier garden center and nursery.

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Any dwarf or small houseplants may be grouped together in a miniature garden, as long as they enjoy the same light, water, and soil!        

Supplies for a Miniature Garden

The key item for a mini garden is a container. You can use a single one with a wide opening or several small pots grouped together. Shallow pots work just as well as deep pots here. The main thing is that they have proper drainage holes. The place where you’d like to keep your garden may decide the depth of pot you use. For example, a shallow pan-like pot may work better on a desk or table, whereas a deep pot may sit nicely on the floor.

Besides this key item, you’ll want to consider different supplies depending on your design. If you’re going for a fairy garden, you may want some miniature furniture, perhaps a little cottage house, a quaint fence, and stones or broken pottery for a path. All of this decor can be easily crafted with little more than a glue gun, some sticks, and your children’s imagination. Preserved moss also adds a beautiful touch. 

Terrariums, herb, and succulent gardens may include less decor but still benefit from zen-like stone paths, edging, or pebble mulch. You’ll also need potting soil, depending on the plants, and then, of course, there are the plants themselves!

Plants for a Miniature Garden

As you can guess, the key is to use small plants. All of the plants should have similar soil, water, and lighting needs, especially if they are in the same pot. Hungry for herbs? Try your hand at sage, rosemary, chives, mint, thyme, or oregano. Searching for succulents? Aloe, Burro’s Tail, Echeveria, Haworthia, and Jade Plants gel well together. Fawning after a fairy garden? Visit your local garden center in Chicagoland and see what you can find. Any dwarf or small houseplants may be grouped together in a miniature garden, as long as they enjoy the same light, water, and soil!

Steps to Building a Miniature Garden

1. Choose your location. It’s wise to know what lighting you have before you select the plants.  
2. Make your plant selections. 
3. Fill your chosen pot(s) with the appropriate potting soil mix for your plants.   
4. Dig small holes and plant the plants. 
5. For fairy gardens: decorate the garden with mini pathways, fences, cottages, preserved moss, or items of your choice.
6. For a zen or succulent garden: add any design of colored pebbles or stones on the surface of the soil. 

Taking care of plants is rejuvenative in itself, not to mention the beauty and fresh air that they provide. Though the winter is here, we can still enjoy the benefits of gardening by keeping a DIY mini garden. If you’re looking for more gift ideas and indoor plant inspiration, download our Winter Garden Guide. And if you’d like something professionally arranged, check out our ready-made mini gardens and terrariums at our nurseries!    

Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago’s premier garden center and nursery.

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Costume Parade 

Dressing up is everyone’s favorite part of Halloween—it’s one of the few times each year when we can finally let loose our inner werewolf or pretend to be our favorite celebrity. Rather than having the fun inside, get some neighbors together for a socially-distanced parade in costume. Haunt the “spookiest” parts of your neighborhood and end the march in the local park after nightfall. 

Scavenger Hunt

Your leaf-strewn yard and abundant fall garden make the ideal course for a scavenger hunt. Hide a witch’s broom, wand, or clues to a mystery box filled with treats. Let your kids’ imaginations fill in the blanks. Or, conceal costume parts that you can use in the next game!  

Costume Swap 

Ask all of your family members to bring 5-10 pieces of clothing to your yard. Set the clock for two minutes and see who can put together the silliest costume. Kids will get a kick out of their hilarious costume creations for hours!

Often the guise of nightfall is all that’s needed to make a place feel haunted. With costumes on, the mood will be all the more mysterious.

Ghost Balloon Relay Race 

In preparation for this friendly competition, each team draws a spooky face on a white balloon. Then, it’s a race to move the balloon across the yard and back again until each teammate completes a leg. What’s the trick? You have to keep the balloon in the air by hitting it before it touches the ground! 

Mummy Relay Race

It’s similar to a potato sack race, but with a Halloween twist. On the starting line, wrap each racers’ legs together with toilet paper. See who can make it to the finish line first without tearing any of the mummy covering.  

Bobbing For Apples

This is an ancient Celtic game that was played at the time of the apple harvest. To adapt this game for safer play, give each player their own plastic “basin” (salad bowls or mixing bowls work great) with one or two apples apiece. The apples will float on the surface. With hands tied behind their backs, each contestant must race to pluck the fruit from the water with their teeth. Remove the stems from each apple to make the activity harder. The first player to empty their basin wins!

Mystery Feel Box

This sensory game may not be ideal for sensitive tummies! Put blindfolds on the children and let them reach into boxes filled with cold spaghetti, peeled grapes, gelatin, pumpkin guts, or other unusually textured materials. Let kids guess what’s inside—the best guesser gets a treat!

Walk Through a Haunted Park 

Often the guise of nightfall is all that’s needed to make a place feel haunted. With costumes on, the mood will be all the more mysterious. Keep eyes and ears open for animals. If you can plan ahead, stash a mystery item that the kids will discover along the way.   

Ghost Story Circle

Around a fire at night, one person starts a story with a single sentence. The next person repeats the phrase and adds another sentence. The game goes on until the story breaks down in laughter, or it stops making sense. Let everyone have the chance to begin a tale.   

Make Your Own Horror Movie 

Choose your favorite mobile device and head to the woods or your backyard wearing your costumes to film your own family “horror movie.” The film is guaranteed to be more funny than scary, and it’ll make a treasured memory you can revisit when the kids are older.

You don’t need much to have a howling time at home this Halloween! The colorful leaves and naked branches already dress our landscapes in haunting beauty, but if you do need any supplies to enjoy your activities at home, please don’t hesitate to visit our local garden centers in Bloomingdale and Carpentersville! 

Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago’s premier garden center and nursery.

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The Hummingbird Garden

Installing a hummingbird feeder may be an obvious first step, but sugar water is not the best for their health, and you have to change it often to keep it mold-free. Planting a hummingbird garden is much more fun. Your kids can learn to grow the amazing flowers our hummingbirds depend on. Here are our best tips for success:    

1. Choose a site in view of a window so your kids can watch for visitors.
2. Choose flowers with the most nectar, not the biggest blossoms. Plants like Bee Balm, Trumpet Honeysuckle, and Red Snapdragon are loaded with the good stuff, as are many other tubular flowers.
3. Select native plants to Illinois, which our wild hummingbirds know and love, such as the Cardinal Flower, Crossvine, Royal Catchfly, and Red Columbine.
4. Plant groups of three or more of the same flower to provide more food.
5. Grow a variety of species that bloom in the early, mid- and late season so that the hummingbirds have constant sources of food.
6. Hummingbirds love red flowers—if our earlier selections didn’t give it away! They also go for orange and pink blossoms, like hummingbird mint, and sometimes indulge in other plants that are rich in nectar, like Black and Blue Anise Sage.  

Paint it Red

Give hummingbirds an extra reason to visit and your kids a chance to work on some garden crafts! Encourage them to decorate your plain terracotta pots with hummingbirds’ favorite color, paint garden stones in ladybug red, make scarlet dragonflies out of twist-ties, or hang a few origami robins around the yard! Let kids imagine themselves as hungry hummingbirds to look for the best places to show off their art.  

Make a Perch

Hummingbirds have the highest metabolism in the animal kingdom. They beat their wings 12-80 times per second and fly as fast as 34 miles per hour—but sometimes they like to rest. An exposed dead branch gives them a lookout to protect their flowers from rivals and watch for predators. If unavailable, let your kids craft a charming hummingbird swing. Attach an arch of wire over a piece of pencil-thin wood. Ask your kids to decorate it with red gems, ribbons, or beads, and hang it with string from a branch with good views.      

Install a Birdbath

Hummingbirds love to preen their feathers with a splash of water. Sometimes the dew on a leaf is enough. They also love to fly through a garden mister, just like your kids on a summer day. But installing a birdbath can give them an extra treat! This classic landscape feature adds a touch of magic to your yard and attracts other birds and butterflies to your garden. Task kids with refilling, cleaning, and monitoring the birdbath, much like they would for a family pet.    

The garden season is just getting underway! Let our online catalog inspire you with ideas for your hummingbird garden or any new landscaping project, and please contact us if you have more questions. Hummingbirds are just a few of our favorite things to discuss!

Click for more information.

Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago’s premier garden center and nursery.

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Decorated Flower Pots 

Take out the paints and give the little ones free rein to decorate some of your pots. If they need inspiration, encourage them to go outside and observe the blossoms and butterflies. Chances are, their fertile minds are already brimming with ideas. All you need to do is lay down some newspaper, grab some old shirts, and let the painting begin.   

Bean Pole Teepee 

Put together a bean pole teepee with simple bamboo poles and twine. Your kids can help tie the twine or decorate the poles with flowers, suncatchers, or anything else they can imagine. Once finished, set it up in the yard and plant climbing beans around the outside. Make sure to leave a child-sized gap for an entranceway. You’ll be surprised by how fast the beans climb the trellises! When the walls are covered in leaves, your kids will have a secret hideout in the garden where they can play all summer.   

Ladybug Hotel 

Transform an old birdhouse into a ladybug hotel. Your kids can paint the outside, collect moss or grass for the roof, and glue hollow bamboo sticks in the middle. Ladybugs love nooks and crannies to make their homes in, so you can add other twigs or dry grass as you see fit. As you check your vacancy rates through the summer, you can teach your children about the benefits of ladybugs, how they keep aphids in check, and watch for other friendly insects, like leafcutter bees, praying mantis, and dragonflies. 

Cookie Cutter Bird Feeder 

Make these homemade bird feeders with simple supplies of gelatin, water, birdseed, and cookie cutters. Hang them on your kids’ favorite tree, and they’ll soon become explorers and natural scientists. They’ll likely observe several curious sparrows, nuthatches, and chickadees who have come to try the newest local “restaurant”! A rare visit by a colorful goldfinch or cardinal will inspire them to learn more about the world of the winged-ones.   

The Fairy Garden 

With your garden buzzing with pollinators and perching birds, you’re ready to attract visitors from the fairy world. Start by setting up a miniature cottage and garden path. With a quaint log cabin built of popsicle sticks or twigs, rocks painted like toadstools, and stepping stones leading to the door, you’ll soon have fairies coming through the yard. Your kids can watch for them within their bean pole hideaway, and you can feed their imaginations by reading some fairy stories together. 

Give your kids the chance to make garden crafts, and they will transform your plots into a world of enchantment. Far from being bored, they’ll soon share stories of the creatures they discover and may even start their own kid-friendly garden. If you’re searching for other ways to involve your family in the garden, or need any supplies for the growing season, please don’t hesitate to contact our garden centers.  

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES:
5 Cool Houseplants Kids Will Love
Create an Ultimate Nature Scavenger Hunt for the Whole Family

Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago’s premier garden center and nursery.

The post I’m Bored! 5 Garden Crafts for Kids appeared first on Platt Hill Nursery.

When kids experience edible gardening for themselves, they learn the story behind their fruits and veggies. Forming that connection with food before it lands on their plate helps to replace fear with familiarity. Not to mention, it’s tons of fun to play in the dirt! 

These four kid-friendly edible gardening projects make fantastic outdoor activities with life-long benefits for their minds and bodies.

Egg Carton Seed Starters

Great for: Ages 3+

You’ll Need:

• Cardboard egg cartons (at least one)
• Seed starter soil mix
• A variety of easy-to-grow vegetable seeds (Try radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and different colors of carrots!)
• Plastic wrap
• A sunny windowsill
• Grow light (Optional but recommended)
• Labels (optional but recommended)

Hold onto your cardboard egg cartons for this easy and interactive activity! Even small kids with developing motor skills can use a clean plastic shovel to scoop starter mix into the egg cups. Help them out by tapping the excess back into the bag, and you’re already halfway there!

Next, work together to sprinkle seeds into the cartons. Before you plant, let your young gardener see the pictures on the seed packets and take some time to talk about what they are, and how you’ll be working together to help them grow.

Let your little one sprinkle seeds into the egg cells, and help them out by adding labels to keep track of what’s planted and where. Depending on the age of your child, you may or may not need to help them by gently adding water to the carton. Place a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the carton and leave it on the windowsill.

Every day, check on the carton together to see if the seeds have grown. As soon as you notice little green shoots, your budding gardener will likely be very excited! At this point, you can remove the plastic and turn on the grow light, if you’re using one. Keep the light on over the carton for 12-14 hours per day—you may want to use a timer.

Check on the carton together every day, keeping the soil evenly moist with a small watering can or spray bottle. Once the seedlings have grown their second set of true leaves, you can start moving the carton outside to harden them off before transplanting in the garden. Read our seed starting guide to learn more about hardening off seedlings.

Once the seedlings are planted in the garden, your child will love visiting them in the garden and watching them grow. They’ll be proud of taking care of the veggies they grew “all by themselves” and happy to eat them too!

Potatoes in a Sack

Great for: Ages 5+

You’ll Need:

• Empty egg carton
• Seed potatoes
• Large burlap bags (approximately 3 feet in length)
• Two large bags of compost
• Tarp

If there’s one vegetable even picky eaters get excited about, it’s the humble potato! Even a sworn veggie-hater will love this easy, portable edible garden for kids.

If your seed potatoes haven’t chitted (sprouted shoots), start there. Place the seed potatoes in the egg carton and let them sit inside somewhere cool where there’s still plenty of natural light. Once the potatoes have got at least an inch of shoot on them, you can get outside and start planting!

To start, roll down the edges of the burlap bag until it’s just over a foot deep. Add about a foot of compost first, and then use your hands to create small holes about five inches deep. Then, have your kids stick the potatoes into the holes with the shoot side facing up. Get them to cover the holes with compost and add water.

Check on the “potato sack” daily as the plant begins to grow, watering whenever the compost looks a little dry. As the plant starts to leaf out and get taller, have kids add more compost and unroll the bag slightly.

Continue to do this together until the bag is fully unrolled and filled with compost, and the plant peeks out of the top. The potatoes are almost ready to harvest when the plant leaves begin to die back. Let the plant die off completely and cut it back to the soil line. Give the soil a little extra time to let the potatoes set their skins, up to a few weeks. You can dunk a hand into the compost and check on the potatoes yourself to see if they’re ready!

When you’re ready to harvest, dump the bag out onto a tarp set it down near the garden. Your kids will be amazed when tons of potatoes tumble out of the sack! Bring them inside in batches to wash in the sink, and repurpose the compost however you like.

Container Vegetable Gardening

Great for: Ages 8+

You’ll Need:

• A medium-to-large outdoor container OR a raised garden bed
• Compost
• Fresh garden soil
• Organic fertilizers (according to plant needs)
• Seeds, or edible starter plants from Platt Hill Nursery

Older, more independent kids may be ready to take care of their very own container garden! This project is all about discovery and learning what works and what doesn’t. 

Start with a visit to the garden center and let kids pick out their own favorite berries and veggies. Cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and blueberries are popular starter plants for kids, while kids who prefer to plant from seed will love fast-growing radishes and salad greens. 

When you arrive home with your plants and supplies, be clear that this container or raised bed is theirs to care for, not yours! Help your child along as needed by encouraging them to read the care instructions on the plant labels or seed packets, and demonstrating what steps to take only when necessary. Let your child experiment and make mistakes—this is the perfect time to do it!

Offer guidance if you feel it’s appropriate; some kids might appreciate a reminder when it’s time to water, and others may have questions about what exactly a “fertilizer” is. This is a great project for self-guided learning, with low stakes and an awesome reward at the end!

Windowsill Herb Garden

Great for: Ages 10+

You’ll Need:

• Terra cotta pots or a long terra cotta planter
• A sunny windowsill
• Herb seeds, like cilantro, chives, dill, parsley, basil, thyme, and oregano
• Fresh potting soil
• Grow light with timer (if growing indoors)

This project is very easy, but might be a better fit for older kids who are starting to gain an appreciation for cooking. Try encouraging an interest in herb gardening by talking to your kids about the herbs you like to cook with, and how they change the flavors in your recipes. Point out how the oregano or basil in your pasta or pizza sauces make it taste different than plain old ketchup. Or, how the chives in your mashed potatoes make them extra yummy!

Decide with your kid gardener which herbs they’d like to grow. Have them go outside to fill the pots or planters with soil, plant their seeds, and add water. They can choose to grow the plants outside, if the weather permits, or indoors if it’s a little chilly. If growing indoors, help your child set up a grow light on a timer for 12-14 hours during the day.

Encourage your child to water their herbs regularly to keep the soil evenly moist, but not sopping wet. Within a few months, most of the herbs will be leafy enough to start adding to different dishes!

A lot of the fun of this project happens after the herbs are ready to use. Encourage your young herb gardener to experiment with different flavors, like adding some ripped basil leaves to a bowl of strawberries or watermelon. 

Like the vegetables themselves, a taste for veggies and edible gardening needs to be cultivated. Get your kids involved early with a trip to one of our garden centers in Bloomingdale or Carpentersville. You might be surprised by how quickly your kids can learn about food, plants, and the environment—they just need someone to plant the seeds!

Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago’s premier garden center and nursery.

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When kids can get interested in how plants grow, it opens the door to bigger questions about the world they live in. Imagine how much they can learn from discussion questions like:

• “What is a pollinator?”
• “Which plants can we eat, and which ones are dangerous?”
• “Why are vegetables important?”
• “How do people grow food?”

…just to name a few!

So, why aren’t more kids getting curious about plants? As you know, children crave action, excitement, and novelty. While a slow-growing plant without much color may not be the best for holding their interest, these action-packed houseplants are just as exciting as a new pet! Here are our top five best houseplants for kids. 

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)

Children learn the difference between carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores pretty early in school—some of us might recall how much fun it was to play “dinosaurs” or “animal kingdom” during recess! However, kids don’t always learn about the amazing life cycles of carnivorous plants. The first time a pair of young eyes watches a Venus Flytrap snap shut on a housefly is a moment of pure magic. Don’t be surprised if they start spending hours capturing bugs just to feed their new houseplant!

Venus Flytraps also have other qualities that make them some of the best houseplants for kids. These “snappy” houseplants grow naturally in swampy environments, so they can handle a few over-enthusiastic waterings! Older children will enjoy setting up a terrarium with an old fish bowl or aquarium while learning more about microclimates and ecosystems.

Sundews (Drosera)

To a kid, a tropical sundew looks more like an alien than a plant—and that’s awesome! Their colorful spines covered in droplets of dew-like “fly bait” make these unusual plants some of the best houseplants for kids of any age. Sundews are a large family of carnivorous plants, each one more fascinating than the last. Like Venus Flytraps, sundews are found in humid tropical environments. If your child already has a Venus Flytrap, they can start a Sundew terrarium to add to their carnivorous plant collection!

These plants naturally grow in partially sunny environments, so a spot with bright indirect light will suit them best. Kids will love how their “dew” reflects the sunlight to create a mesmerizing trap for unsuspecting fruit flies!

Sensitive Plant (Mimosa pudica)

At first glance, the fern-like foliage of the Sensitive Plant may not look too intriguing to the average kid. All that changes as soon as you ask them to tap on the end of the plant’s stems! Kids will be blown away when the plant instantly recoils and slowly returns to its relaxed state. If they’re lucky enough to catch this aptly-named plant in flower, their pompom-like blooms are yet another feature that will capture children’s imaginations.

To set your kid up for growing success, add some peat moss to their Sensitive Plant’s soil and make sure the pot has good drainage. The soil needs to be kept evenly moist, but not wet, and will do best with a dose of half-strength fertilizer every two weeks. Older kids may be up to the challenge of caring for this slightly more demanding houseplant. However, younger kids will be more than happy to “help out” by giving this moving plant its own special name!

Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea)

Once a kid has started collecting carnivorous houseplants, it won’t take them long to get “hungry” for a new specimen! The Pitcher Plant’s carnivorous tubes are great talking points for learning about adaptation and biodiversity. Even more mindblowing is how, unlike exotic Venus Flytraps and tropical Sundews, some Pitcher Plants are actually native to the United States! 

Pitcher Plants, like other carnivorous plants, evolved to rely on insects for food because their native soil lacks nutrients. The best “soil” for Pitcher Plants is a fast-draining, low-fertility growing medium made from bark, peat moss, and vermiculite. Potting this plant together presents a great opportunity to talk about different soil types, and how something as simple as dirt has a huge impact on the environment.

Prayer Plant (Maranta leuconeura ‘var. erythroneura’)

This plant’s best qualities appeal to children and grown-ups alike! Prayer plant’s gorgeous, pink-striped foliage looks great as an accent for your home decor. However, they also have an interesting habit that kids love! In the evening, the Prayer Plant folds its leaves together in a “prayer” position, which is lots of fun to watch in action. Keep this houseplant in a well-lit location in plain view, and point out to your child when you’ve noticed the leaves have moved. In no time, they’ll be making a game of trying to catch the plant in action!

Prayer Plants do best in evenly moist, but not wet, soils. Consider making it a tradition for your child to check the soil every morning as part of their daily routine.

These houseplants are more than a living decoration; your child will start to see them as part of the family. Visit one of our Chicagoland garden center locations in Bloomingdale or Carpentersville with your child this weekend to discover these wild and wacky species. You’ll love how these kid-friendly houseplants give you the chance to learn together—and they’re certainly easier to care for than a puppy!

Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago’s premier garden center and nursery.

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