Colouring Flowers

Have you dyed white flowers by adding food coloring to the water they are in? In this activity we’ll see whether the amount of food coloring we add to the water changes how thoroughly the flower petals are dyed.

Materials:

• Three cut white flowers

• Food coloring

• Scissors

• Water

• Plastic water tubes

Directions:

1. Gather three cut white flowers. Chrysanthemums, morning glories, carnations, and daisies all work well for this experiment.

2. Decide which color of food coloring you’d like to use to dye the flowers.

1. Decide how many drops of food coloring you’d like to use in each cup. You can try 1, 5, and 10 drops of food coloring.

2. Add the same amount of water to each of the 3 cups.

3. Add the drops of food coloring to each cup. Label the cups as you go. (1 drop, 5 drops, and 10 drops）.

4. Use scissors to cut the stems so they are approximately 5 inches long.

5. Place one flower in each cup.

6. Let them sit overnight and check back in the morning.

7. Compare the three flowers-which flower has the most dye in its petals?

8. Because a flower, even one that has been cut, needs water to keep from wilting, the flower moved water from the cup up through the stem to its petals. When the flower moved the water up, it took some of the dye with it. That dye stayed in the flower petals.