Festive Flowers

Picture Taken by Delora

Does anyone else feel bad mowing over the sweet daisies that grow in your yard?  Here is a fun way to use them for a gift or for a science project.  Did you know that you can color your daisies by putting them in water with food coloring?

Materials:
Daisies
Sharp Scissors
Faucet
Water
Vase
Food Coloring

Instructions:
Round up the daisies that pop up in your yard or purchase some at your florist.  This process will work for carnations, too.

Trim the stems of your flower by making a slanted cut under running water.  Why a slanted cut? Making a flat cut may cause your flower stem to sit flat on the bottom of your vase which won't allow your flower to take in water.  Why cut under water?  Without this step small air bubbles may form at the end of the stem also preventing water intake.

Fill your vase 2/3 of the way with warm water.  Add 25 drops of food coloring per half cup. Place your flowers in the vase and check back every hour.  After one day your petals should be fully colored.  

Scientific Explanation:
Here is About.com's scientific explanation for this process called transpiration (plant drinking).  As water evaporates from flowers and leaves, the attractive force between water molecules, called cohesion, pulls more water along.  Water is pulled up through tiny tubes (xylem) that run up a plant's stem.  Although gravity might want to pull the water back down toward the ground, water sticks to itself and these tubes.  This capillary action keeps water in the xylem in much the same way as water stays in a straw when you suck water through it.  Except evaporation and biochemical reactions provide the initial upward pull.

Good thing you are following this blog!  You are now officially smarter.