Plants
Kids Will Love
by Cheryl Dorschner
 All
plants are not created equal in the eyes of children.
Although they don't differentiate when it comes to
flowers over vegetables, annuals or perennials (in
fact they're likely to plant them side by side), kids
have their hands-down favorites.
Kids like extremes: huge flowers, like the classic
sunflower, and small vegetables, like cherry or tiny
grapelike tomatoes. If you have room, try 'Atlantic
Giant' pumpkins; if you don't, try bush cucumbers
and pick them at cornichon-size for tiny pickles.
Try plants that come in surprising colors, such as
purple carrots, striped beets, rainbow chard, and
'Easter egg' radishes.
"Performing plants" always tops our list.
We grow Mimosa pudica sensitive ferns because
they close to the touch; snap dragons to make the
flowers "talk"; and bleeding hearts, whose
flowers reveal treasures when dissected. We've also
tried Chinese lanterns (invasive), balloon flowers,
love-in-a-puff, and money plants (Lunaria).
Textured plants are irresistible. If your conditions
are right for them, include the fuzzy woolly thyme
and lambs' ears, the prickly coneflower and strawflowers,
and the delicate maidenhair fern and columbine.
Fragrant plants transport the imagination. If you
grow them now, your child will always remember the
scents of heliotrope, mignonette, roses, peonies,
and lilacs. If you show them which plants to rub between
their fingers, they'll never forget lavender, pineapple
mint, lemon balm, rosemary, basil, and scented geraniums.
Butterflies are beloved in the garden. Everyone says
plant monarda, butterfly weed, and salvia to attract
them. I say plant parsley, dill, milkweed, thistles,
and knapweed — wild plants are the diet butterflies
expect.
Night bloomers fill summer evenings with magic. My
children will never forget the nights we went out
with flashlights and saw the sphinx moths zooming
among the nicotiana and moonflowers. Four o'clock
strikes, and evening primrose open, as their name
promises.
Positively pickable plants get the thumbs up from
kids. While mom's landscape may be off-limits for
bouquet gathering, children should have free reign
over certain cutting gardens. Cosmos, snapdragon,
salvia, zinnia, coleus, and celosia are just a few
that produce more vigorously if picked. At our house,
kids know that the dandelions, violets, hawkweed,
and other surprises growing in the lawn are free for
all.
And besides all these high-performance plants, parents
shouldn't overlook those stalwarts of the nursery
trade. Common annuals or tender perennials are common
because they bloom reliably all summer long. That's
what kids want, so include these hard-workers in the
mix:
For full sun: geraniums, morning glories, marigolds,
nasturtiums, petunias, salvia, snapdragons, strawflowers,
and sunflowers.
For semi-shade: begonias, forget-me-nots, impatiens,
Johnny-jump-ups, and pansies.
For deeper shade, flowering annuals are hard
to come by: abutilon, variegated ivies, sensitive
plants, and ferns.
Don't overlook bulbs and corms — especially the
tiny ones such as daffodils and irises. Grape hyacinth,
crocus, and snowdrops are naturally small.
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