Saturday, July 4, 2009

Dying Flowers Experiment from 5 Orange Potatoes

Queen Anne's Lace Fireworks!

Don't these colored Queen Anne's Lace flowers look like fireworks? They would make a beautiful July 4th decoration and you'll have a chance to teach the kids some botony on the side. ;) I saw Joy, You know how we're an art family, do it with her family, and me being the nature girl I am HAD to try it. I've done this with carnations and celery, but this is by far my favorite flower for this experiment!


What you need:
Freshly cut Queen Anne's Lace flowers
Food coloring (we used Easter egg dye)
Clear bottles
Water


Now, simply color the water (10-20 drops) and add a flower to each bottle. Then wait, keep checking the flowers every 10 minutes. Let them sit overnight too, they get brighter and bolder with time.

We tried this experiment ourselves this weekend with Daisies, but didn't get quite the spectacular results that 5 Orange Potatoes did with her Queen Anne's Lace.


Our best color was blue.

Our next best color was orange, but it looks rather more yellow than orange.

Red was the only other we saw a color change, albeit faint.

All in all it was a fun experiment to do with my son and a very lovely centerpiece for the table. Check out the original entry
http://www.5orangepotatoes.com/2009/07/queen-annes-lace-fireworks.html

1 comment:

  1. So pretty with the daisies. I can't figure out why some colors work better than others.

    Lisa :)

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