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Bud and Sprout are on hand to help Detective Le Plant solve some of the great mysteries of plant life. Case by case, you will check the clues, try experiments and solve problems as Bud and Sprout journey into the world of plants. The detective promises lots of fun, but the outcome will remain a mystery until your investigative duties are competed. You can also find your way to some other great "green links." Get the dirt on soil -- it's much more than you think. Do you know the difference between a daffodil bulb and a potato? Bud and Sprout will help you find out about a lot of plants, fruits, and vegetables, and they will even show you how to grow your own mango!
If you don't know a sepal from a cotyledon, this is the place for you! Learn all about plants at this site, which was one of the finalists in the 1998 ThinkQuest Junior competition. The handy A to Z glossary reveals that the cotyledon is the hard outer case of the seed, which holds the embryo (baby part of the plant) and gives it a food supply, whereas the sepals are the outer green parts of the base of the flower. Sepals protect the flower bud before it opens. The entire process of growth is explained, and the site includes lots of great graphics.
If you're one of those people who think a cactus is just a prickly, ugly weed and the desert is a dry wasteland of sand, may we suggest taking a cyber walk through Arizona's Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum? There's not very much to go around in the desert, but most deserts are not deserted! Many scientists think that the variety of life in the desert is second only to that found in the tropics. You won't want to miss the cactus garden, with its 800 different cacti, including tall saguaros, ground-covering prickly pears, and squat, spiky hedgehogs. So that the cactus can conserve what little water it has, some of its flowers last only one day -- and that day happens to be captured here in lots of beautiful pictures.
A garden in an old rock quarry? Come to Vancouver Island, off the west coast of Canada, and see for yourself. Over a million bedding plants are used each year to ensure continuous bloom. And they plant 100,000 bulbs every fall to make a spectacular springtime display!
This site is awesome. For example, explore the virtual biomes. A biome is a collection of plants and animals that live together in a specific region. Visit the desert, the tundra, the temperate forest, the grasslands, the rain forest, and the taiga. What's the taiga? It's the largest biome of all, stretching across parts of Canada, Europe, Russia, and Asia. The summers are warm and the winters are cold (with an average temperature of below zero 6 months of the year!). It doesn't have as many different kinds of animals and plants as the other biomes; still, you can learn all about moose, red fox, and other species that do thrive in this land. Wouldn't it be great to talk to some kids who lived in that taiga biome? You can! There are partner schools for each biome, so check them out.
www.wmin.ac.uk/~allen/main.html This excellent primer explains what bonsai is, and isn't. It is a small tree and pot, grown in visual harmony to give the impression that you're looking at an ancient tree, not a shrub. It is not a dwarf tree. The tree's branches have been trimmed carefully, sometimes wired and trained, in order to give the impression that you're looking at a very old tree, or in the case of saiki, an entire tiny landscape. You can learn the basics of this gardening hobby at this site, including which trees and shrubs lend themselves best to the art of bonsai.
After a long winter, there's nothing so cheerful to see as tiny crocuses blooming in the sun. Did you know that most spring-flowering bulbs are planted in the fall? At this site you can find out everything you'd ever want to know about bulbs, including how to "force" bulbs to bloom out of season, how to keep squirrels from eating all your bulbs, and what's the latest in the quest to develop a black tulip.
Many flowering plants attract butterflies, and others help feed their caterpillars. Some of these are milkweed, lantana, lilac, cosmos, goldenrod, and zinnia. You can find out more if you flutter by!
www.hawaii-nation.org/canoe/canoe.html When early Polynesian explorers set out for Hawaii, a journey of thousands of miles, they traveled in wooden canoes. They took with them, among other things, 24 species of plants thought to be essential to life. These "canoe plants" of ancient Hawaii included aqapuhi kuahiwi (shampoo ginger), ko (sugar cane), and niu (coconut). They were all the new settlers needed for their food, rope, medicine, containers, and fabrics. Here's a guide to these life-sustaining plants. There are also fascinating links to early Polynesian wayfinding over these vast ocean reaches.
Imagine this if you can: a little fly takes a break from buzzing around by coming to rest on the leaf of a beautiful pink plant. What the fly doesn't know is that the leaf is very sticky. Slowly, the leaf edges curl up around the fly. Gulp. It's been eaten -- by a plant! Trapping insects for food is what "carnivorous" plants do. They live in poor soil, so they have to get their nutrition from somewhere (or something). Here, you can see what they look like. A fun thing to do at this site is to click on "Database Entry Formats" to find the right abbreviation into the search box to see if carnivorous plants are anywhere near you. If so, keep your pet flies tied up inside! There are also links to other sites on the Net with even more information and pictures of carnivorous plants.
Ok, you've got no dirt, no sunshine, and no space. No way can you start a garden, right? Wrong. Hydroponics to the rescue. Hydro-what? "Hydro," as in water, and "ponics," as in the Greek word ponos, which means labor. But you don't have to work very hard to grow plants hydroponically, which just means growing then in water mixed with fertilizer - no dirt is required. Plants use a lot of energy tunneling their roots into the dirt to get food. With the hydroponic method, vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs get big and fat by lying back and letting their roots hang down in some very nutritious water. Imagine making strawberry shortcake in the middle of January, with organic strawberries grown from your own "water farm" in your bedroom closet! Take a look at this site to find out how.
www.visuallink.net/fern/growcomm.htm www.inetworld.net/sdfern/ferncare.htm Ferns don't have any flowers and they don't produce seeds, but they do have a way (or ways) to reproduce. Look at the underside of the frond. You may see tiny dots or a brown powder. That material is called spores, and it's one of the ways you could grow a new fern plant. Growing ferns from spores takes a long time. The experts are at this page to let you in on the secrets of fern propagation and culture.
Have you ever watched a butterfly head for a certain spot in the garden? Or seen a hummingbird swoop down on a particular flower? There's a reason, and this magazine has the answers. For kids who like to work with mom and dad in the garden or the yard, a lot of good ideas and answers can be found here. Create a mini water garden or make a handy twine dispenser. There are lots of other fascinating articles and features -- dig in!
Asparagus, beans, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, greens, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsnips, peas, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, and zucchini. You can grow 'em all and you can find out how right here! Remember what Santa Claus says to his gardener elves: "Hoe, hoe, hoe!"
www.arnprior.com/kidsgarden/index.htm Growing flowers and vegetables takes more than a few seeds and some dirt. It all begins with developing a plan and choosing the right place to plant. The people at Kid's Valley Webgarden will tell you when to plant (depending on the weather in your part of the world), what to plant, and how to do it. They you've got to maintain the garden, but don't worry -- they're ready to help. Water, fertilize, mulch, weed; water, fertilize, mulch, weed. Just when you get the bugs all worked out, the fruits of your labor will be ready to enjoy! You will love to visit this gardening bonanza.
aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kinder/ This is a treasure trove of gardening links and projects just for kids and families, brought to you by Texas A&M. Whether growing a salad on your windowsill or sprouts in an eggshell, you'll find easy-to-understand projects here. There's even more: games, puzzles, and advice on the best gardening books for kids.
Every year, the National Gardening Association awards Youth Garden Grants to 300 schools, neighborhood groups, community centers, camps, clubs, treatment facilities, and intergenerational groups throughout the United States. Each grant consists of tools, seeds, and garden products valued to an average of $750. To be eligible, an organization must plan to garden the following spring with at least 15 children between the ages of 3 to 18 years. Selection of winners is based on leadership, educational, social, and/or environmental programming, innovation, sustainability, need, and community support. All applicants will receive seeds and other materials to support their programs, thus ensuring that everyone is a winner. Check the details here and prepare to plant! Also inspect the seed swap, Q&A, and lots of other gardening info at this site. |
Great Plant Escape