Coloured Flowers: The Magic Of Science In One Little Glass

This is an easy experiment to show how a flower draws water up its stem and into the petals.

Materials Needed:

Flowers (preferably white)
Food colouring
Drinking glasses
Water

What To Do:

1) Fill a glass with water.

2) Place eight to ten drops of food colouring in the water. (In our experiment we used red.) The more food colouring you use, the brighter the end result.

3) Place the flowers in the glass and leave for a few hours or overnight.

4) Voila! You will see how the food coloring is distributed into the flower petals.

Take It Up A Notch:

Use this as an opportunity to show younger children how mixing together two colours can create a whole new colour.

Try the experiment with coloured flowers. Does the food colouring show up? Is it as bright? Why or why not?

Try the experiment with vegetables, like green onions, celery, or leeks. Is the result the same?

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