Gardening with Kids: 10 Kid-Friendly Flowers for Your Garden
Looking to create a bright-colored garden full of flowers for your kids? If so, let me give you 10 of our favorite kid-friendly flowers that they are sure to enjoy.
Our kids have been gardening along side me for years now, and each year these blooms still bring wonder and excitement. Let’s get started:
Tips for Choosing Kid-Friendly Flowers
- Easy-to-Grow from Seeds: Kids love being a part of the germination process. With that being said, choose seeds that have a high germination rate.
- Has Bright Colored Blooms: Kids love color, so choose flowers with lots of vibrant color and size options.
- Is Safe: When gardening with your kids, it is very important to teach them that some plants are safe and some are poisonous. Be aware of each plant you bring into your space and teach your kids accordingly.
- Attracts Pollinators: One of the best thing about gardening is teaching biodiversity and how plants interact with their ecosystem. Plant flowers that will bring the butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds and your kids will get to see how pollination works, first-hand.
- Is Edible: Choosing edible flowers that you know are safe for your kids to be around, is a great way to begin gardening with your kids.
- Has Fragrance: Invite all of your kids senses into the garden. Consider finding flowers that offer tantalizing smells that they will enjoy every time they visit the blooms.
- Prolific Blooming: Keep the color coming by choosing flowers that will bloom all season long!
- Offer a Mix of Annuals and Perennials: Consider planting both annuals and perennials in your kid-friendly garden. This will offer not only variety, but a great learning opportunity about how different flowers grow through their lives.
10 Kid-Friendly Flowers for Your Garden
1. Sunflowers
Sunflowers are, hands down, one of the kid’s favorites! These towering beauties are easy to grow from seeds, and produce large yellow and orange flowers. The center of the sunflower is packed full of seeds that kids can harvest, dry, and eat, making this an all-around-great kid-friendly flower.
2. Zinnias
Zinnias are another flower that grows well from seeds. Furthermore, the blooms come in a dazzling array of colors, shapes, and sizes, making them a favorite among young gardeners.
I like that Zinnias are a low-maintenance flower, and can be used for cutting and arranging, allowing kids to showcase their creativity. Plus, these bright-colored flowers bloom profusely throughout the entire summer. And if you dead-head Zinnias, they will stay looking fresh, and will keep showering new growth till the end of the season.
3. Marigolds
Marigolds are hardy flowers that come in bright shades of yellow, red, and orange. We plant these among our vegetables every year, because their strong scent helps to repel pests. While they don’t make great cut flowers, because their stems are not super long, they bloom prolifically throughout the season and add pops of the color that the kids really seem to enjoy.
4. Lavender
Lavender is an herb with beautiful, scented purple flowers. These flowers can be harvested and used in teas, desserts, crafting, and more. In our area, we get two cuttings of lavender a year. Filling our garden basket with these fragrant beauties is one of the highlights of our summer.
5. Cosmos
If you haven’t tried Cosmos flowers yet, you are missing out! These are long-stemmed flowers with large, delicate, feathery blossoms. Not only do the kids love them, so do the butterflies and bees.
I like to hunt down cosmos seeds with stunning color options. So far burgundy has been one of our favorites. Other Cosmos colors that we have had are pink, white, purple, and striped.
6. Sweet Alyssum
You will always find clusters of Sweet Alyssum scattered around our garden. Their small delicate flowers have a light, sweet fragrance and are completely safe for kids to touch and even eat.
I also love that they bloom all summer and attract the pollinators to our garden. Then, they reseed themselves so they can make an appearance the following year.
7. Chamomile
Chamomile is another herb that is perfect to add to a kid-friendly garden. Their gentle, wispy stems feature small white, fragrant, edible flowers. Our kids like to pick these and add them to their tea for flavor. Or, rub the blooms between their palms to make their hands smell good (who am I kidding, so do ).
8. Pansy
Pansy’s are perfecting for pressing flowers in a book and saving for other projects. The markings on these flowers almost look like faces, which is always so amusing to my kids. They are hardy, easy to grow, and edible, making this another kid-friendly flower to try.
9. Roses
While roses have thorns, their petals are soft and even edible for kids. I like having roses sprinkled around the garden area, because they add so much beauty and fragrance. Not to mention, they are a great teaching-tool. Kids quickly learn to be observant around them and are careful while handling them. Roses also make wonderful cut flowers.
10. Chives
Did you know Chives have flowers? They do! And they are beautiful! Bright, whimsical, purple balls that are so fun to see bloom. Once they are done blooming, you cut them off and a couple months later, they will bloom again. In the meantime, your kids can munch on the oniony-flavored straws that are the Chive’s stem or you can use them in cooking.
Gardening is a wonderful way to instill a lifelong love of nature in your kids. By learning about these kid-friendly flowers, I hope you feel inspired to plant some with your kids as well. Happy gardening!
Kid-Friendly Flowers Q & A
1. Are there any flowers that are safe for kids to touch and handle?
Yes, there are several flowers that are safe for kids to touch and handle. Some safe flowers include: marigolds, pansies, sunflowers, sweet alyssum, zinnias, and cosmos.
2. What flowers attract butterflies and bees to the garden?
Flowers that attract butterflies and bees to the garden include: butterfly bush, sunflower, marigold, coneflower, zinnia, bee balm, coneflowers, milkweed, and lavender.
3. Which flowers will continue to bloom all summer?
Several flowers bloom continuously throughout the summer months, providing your garden with a constant flow of color. Some of these flowers include zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, sweet alyssum, petunias, dahlias, and salvia.
4. What flowers attract hummingbirds?
Hummingbirds are drawn to flowers with tubular-shaped blossoms. Some of these tube-shaped flowers include: trumpet vine, lupine, foxglove, salvia, fuchsia, petunia, bee balm, and cardinal flower.