Griffin Museum of Science and Industry
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Science at Home
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Color-Changing Carnations
Change the color of carnations with this simple activity.
- White carnations (daisies and other white flowers may work, too!)
- Clear, plastic cups or vases
- Food coloring
- Scissors or knife
- Fill each cup ¾ full with water.
- Add 20 to 30 drops of food coloring to each glass. Lots of color is better! Leave one glass unaltered as your “control.”
- Have an adult cut the stems of the carnations on a diagonal. The cut must be fresh to allow for maximum water absorption.
- Place one carnation in each colored water glass and one in the plain water.
- Watch what happens! The carnations will soak up the water and take on the new colors. This can show in only hours, but may also need a few days.
Examine everything -- the stems, leaves, and even deep within the blooms for color changes. Compare the flowers with food coloring to the ones without. These blooms really are what they eat!
What's happening?
Flowers are living things that need nourishment to grow. Using their roots, flowers “drink” water up into their stems, leaves and flowers to make food. Eventually, the water evaporates from the plants, much like human sweat. This is called transpiration. Even cut flowers without roots can do this! More water is pulled up from below to fill the empty space left by transpiration. This cycle is called capillary action, and it happens because water sticks to itself-cohesion. By watching the journey of harmless food coloring, we can see all the places water goes in a plant!
CAREFULLY cut the stem of a carnation in half the long way with a knife. Place each half into a different color. Make predictions and observe what happens.
Also think about what would happen to these flowers if the water became polluted? How are these flowers like people? What happens to what we eat? How does it change us?
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Coloring Carnations Science Experiment
Using food coloring in a water bottle to change the color of carnations
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This fun home or school experiment shows your child how water flows through a flower from stem to petals, changing the color of carnations. If you've ever had cut flowers in a vase around the house, your child might have observed the water levels dropping. Your child may wonder why you have to keep watering houseplants. Where does all that water go?
The Coloring Carnations Science Experiment helps to demonstrate that the water isn't just vanishing into thin air. Plus, in the end, you'll have a very pretty bouquet of flowers.
Materials You Will Need
- White carnations (1 for each color you would like to try to create)
- empty water bottles (1 for each carnation)
- food coloring
- 24 to 48 hours
- Coloring Carnations Recording Sheet
Directions for Coloring Carnations Experiment
- Peel the labels off the water bottles and fill each bottle about one-third full of water.
- Have your child add food coloring to each bottle, about 10 to 20 drops to make the color vibrant. If you would like to try to make a rainbow bouquet of carnations, you and your child will need to mix the primary colors to make purple and orange. (Most boxes of food coloring include a bottle of green.)
- Cut the stem of each carnation at an angle and place one in each water bottle. If your child wants to keep a picture diary of what is happening to the carnations, download and print the Coloring Carnations Recording Sheet and draw the first picture.
- Check the carnations every few hours to see if anything is happening. Some of the brighter colors may begin to show results in as little as two or three hours. Once you begin to see visible results, it's a good time to have your child draw the second picture. Just remember to record how many hours have gone by!
- Which color is working the quickest?
- What color isn't showing up well?
- Why do you think the carnations are turning colors? (see explanation below)
- Where is the color showing up?
- What do you think that means about which parts of the flower get the most food?
- At the end of the experiment (either one or two days, it depends on how vibrant you want your flowers to be) gather the carnations into one bouquet. It will look like a rainbow!
Recording Sheet for the Coloring Carnations Science Experiment
Make a four-box grid for your child to draw pictures of what happened in the experiment.
Why the Carnations Change Color
Like any other plant, carnations get their nutrients through the water they absorb from the dirt they are planted in. When the flowers are cut, they no longer have roots but continue to absorb water through their stems. As water evaporates from the leaves and petals of the plant, it "sticks" to other water molecules and pulls that water into the space left behind.
The water in the vase travels up the stem of the flower like a drinking straw and is distributed to all of the parts of the plant that now need water. Since the "nutrients" in the water are dyed, the dye also travels up the stem of the flower.
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Color Changing Flowers Science Experiment
I just love this color changing flowers science experiment ! It is really easy to do and the kids love watching the flowers change color. We think it is the perfect science activity for spring!
I even created printable recording sheets that kids in preschool and early elementary can use to show their observations. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the post to get them.
Related: Walking Water Science Experiment
Color Changing Flowers Experiment
We love a good science experiment and this one did not disappoint. It was really neat to watch the flowers change colors. If you are looking for a science activity to try this spring, you should definitely give this one a go!
Supplies Needed:
- Free printable recording sheets (button to download at the bottom of this post)
- White carnations
- Liquid food coloring in a variety of colors
Instructions:
- To start you will want to trim down the stems of the flower so they fit your cups or glasses.
- Add water to each cup.
- Then put about 10-15 drops of food coloring in the water and stir around a bit.
- Add at least one carnation to each glass of colored water.
- Check in on the flowers every couple of hours and observe any changes.
Observing the Flowers Change Color
We did this color changing flower experiment in the early evening and we started to see changes within a couple of hours. Some of the flowers started showing faint streaks of color along their petals.
By the next morning, most of them were even more colorful. The flower in the purple water didn’t seem to be taking in much water, so I trimmed the stem a little more and it soon started showing more color in the petals.
The following day the color was even more vibrant.
We continued to watch the flowers over the next few days. They did get a bit brighter than the pics above, but never completely saturated in the color.
Next time, we plan to try even more food coloring to see if we get even more saturated colors. We also decided that we will try roses alongside carnations and see if one takes on the color better than the other.
There are lots of ways you can change-up the experiment. You can try doing several different flowers at once. Or you can try different amounts of food coloring.
How Do Plants Drink Water?
Plants drink water from the ground up through their roots. The water travels up the stem and into the petals of the flower. Although, our flowers didn’t have roots anymore they were still able to pull water up from the cup into the stem and up through the flower to the petals.
It is through capillary action that plants are able to defy gravity and pull water up and into their leaves and flowers.
To read more about capillary action, check out this awesome walking water science experiment !
We hope you’ll give this fun color changing flowers science experiment a try soon!
Science is Fun and Engaging for Kids!
Science experiments help foster curiosity, ignite children’s imagination and help develop a love for learning! It’s a fantastic way for kids to develop problem solving skills, critical thinking and improve fine motor skills while building confidence!
Your kids will have a blast while learning science concepts in the classroom or at home.
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