Many children, from preschool through to teens have an interest in growing and caring for plants.  For those of us who live in northern climates this leaves several months out of the year where any planting and growing has to take place indoors.  Luckily there are many fun and beautiful plants that can be grown indoors.

Little Leafy Green has been interested in growing plants from seeds for a couple of years, and we have attempted many different plants with varying levels of success. Here are some of my favorite indoor plants to grow with children.  My criteria for recommendation includes a few different factors:
 -kids like to grow plants straight from the beginning.  Being able to look at the  seeds and bulbs, plant them in the container themselves and watch them sprout  is much more interesting than simply buying a plant.
 -the plants should provide some kind of a pay-off fairly quickly.  No 5 year old is  going to want to wait for 6-8 weeks to see a result.
 

1.  Amaryllis Bulbs.  One of our favorite flowers to plant in the winter is the amaryllis bulb.    Kits containing the bulb, pot and dirt are readily available everywhere from gardening centers to grocery stores.  These plants sprout quickly and grow anywhere between 12-24 inches.  A very impressive cluster of large, long lasting, colorful flowers blooms from the top.  Easy to grow, and very pretty to look at when in bloom.  Once it has bloomed, the bulb can also produce offshoot bulbs that can be divided and planted on their own.

2.  Avocado Plant.  Another easy plant to sprout is an avocado plant.  Simply scoop carefully out of a ripe avocado, gently poke in 3 toothpicks and set in a cup of water so that it covers about half the seed.  Children can then watch the roots form in the water and a shoot come out the top.  Once the seed has taken root, the small plant can be transferred into a pot.

3. Spider Plants.  If you happen to have a mature spider plant, or know someone who does this is the one exception to starting plants straight from a seed or bulb.  Mature spider plants send out offshoots of baby spider plants that can be cut off and planted if roots have already formed, or rooted in water and then planted.  Kids can have a lot of fun choosing their baby plant and learning how to plant and care for it.

4. The Carnivorous Garden.  This one requires more work and a longer waiting period, however the coolness factor of growing bug eating plants makes up for the extra work.  The Carnivorous Creations kit contains seeds for seven different types of carnivorous plants.  It also includes a plastic terrarium, dirt, “swamp rocks” and decorative stickers and plastic swamp animals to decorate the garden.  Two words of warning about this product.  First, it is very, very important to follow their instructions and only use distilled water to water the garden as the minerals in regular water are harmful to carnivorous plants.  I would have preferred that they include that tidbit of information on the box instead of only on the inside instructions as most people do not keep distilled water on hand.  Instead of making a special trip to the store, I tried bottled water and effectively ruined our first kit!  Second, one of the seed packs included in the kit must be mixed with a small amount of soil and left to germinate in the fridge for 6 weeks before planting.  Depending on the age of your child it might be advisable to carefully open the kit early and get these seeds started as six weeks can be an incredibly long time for a younger child to wait.  This kit is a fair bit of work, but if you have the patience it is one of the coolest gardening activities around.

Children have such a keen interest in learning about nature.  It is definitely worthwhile to take advantage of the opportunities to bring a little bit of nature indoors to brighten up those winter months.

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