colour changing flower experiment worksheet

Color Changing Flowers Experiment with Free Printable

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In this captivating color changing flowers experiment, your children will explore the fascinating world of plant physiology and water absorption. This engaging hands-on activity involves placing white carnations in differently colored water and observing the mesmerizing transformation of the petals.

This is one of those activities that can be done with all ages, including preschool!

We will get to see how water moves through a plant’s “straw-like” system called capillary action. It’s like a journey for the water as it travels through the plant and helps it absorb and share water, kind of like how our bodies need water to stay healthy. So, it’s not just about colors changing; it’s also a fun way to learn about how plants drink water and share it with different parts of their “body.”

The Science Behind the Color Changing Flowers

The science behind the color changing flowers experiment is the capillary action in plants.  Capillary action enables plants to work against gravity and move water from the soil into the leaves and stems (the vascular system) of the plant.

To understand capillary action, it’s important to understand the properties of water. Consider testing the properties of water as a follow-up to this activity.

Water not only provides hydration to plants but also helps maintain their structure. When water moves through the xylem, it creates internal pressure, allowing plants to stand tall and firm. Without capillary action, plants may become limp and wilted.

Capillary action is a fascinating phenomenon that involves the movement of liquids, like water, through narrow spaces, such as tiny tubes or porous materials. The driving forces behind capillary action are cohesive and adhesive forces.

You can read about cohesion and adhesion in this post we have on testing the properties. There are six simple activities that will help you and your children understand and “see” the cohesion and adhesion properties of water.

 Cohesion simply means that water molecules like to stick to each other. This is caused by the slightly negative charge of the oxygen atom of one water molecule being attracted to the slightly positive charge of the hydrogen atoms of another water molecule.

When water encounters a narrow space like a thin tube, and the diameter is small enough, cohesive forces within the liquid, along with adhesive forces between the liquid and the container’s surface, come into play. This synergy surpasses the force of gravity, allowing water to move upward. It’s like a delicate balance of attractive forces that goes against water’s natural tendency to be pulled downward by gravity.

This is where capillary action comes into play. A plant has special tubes called xylem tubes. They are the plant’s special system for moving water from the ground all the way up to the leaves, As water is drawn into the xylem tubes, it adheres to the walls of these tubes due to adhesive forces. At the same time, cohesive forces cause water molecules to stick together, forming a continuous chain.

Now, envision this chain of water molecules moving upwards through the xylem. It’s like a collaborative effort, where each water molecule pulls the next one up, defying gravity. This process allows water to reach even the tallest parts of the plant.

Capillary action is like a superhero power for plants! It helps move water and all the good stuff they need from their roots to every part of their body. Capillary action is a plant’s special delivery system for water and nutrients from the soil.

It’s hard for our children (and us) to see this capillary action, but the color changing flowers experiment is a very visual representation of the process.

SPECIAL NOTE: I highly recommend leaving the stems longer. This will help your child see how the stem and leaves change color too.

Add Some Variations to the Color Changing Flowers Experiment

Here are some variations you can try on this activity:

• As an experiment, you could set up 2 parts to the experiment. Create two identical set-ups of flowers and colored water, however, the one variable you change is the length of the stem. Keep one set shorter and one set longer. Then, compare the time to see the coloring changing in the flowers.
• Where we live, the winter temperatures hover around 39 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, if you are able to, place one set of flowers outside in about 40 degree weather and another set inside where it’s 68 or warmer. Did temperture affect the rate of absorption for the colors?
• You can also cut a slit in each stem and place one half in one color and the other half in a second color.

Get the Color Changing Flowers Lab Sheets

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Materials and Procedures for the Color Changing Flower Experiment

Materials needed:.

• 5 to 7 white carnations
• 5 to 7 vases or tall glasses
• Food coloring
• Worksheets we have created for this activity

Directions:

• Determine the colors you are going to use. Will you mix colors, such as red and blue to make purple? This is also a fun way for our youngest scientists to learn about mixing colors.
• Gather the flowers and cut off about 1/2 of an inch from the bott, cutting at an angle.
• Determine how much water you are going to pour into each jar or vase. Then, mix up a color for each vase.
• Fill each vase or glass with a colored water.
• Place one flower per vase.
• Record the starting point of your experiment on the recording sheet.
• Place the vases or glasses in a safe place where they can be observed. (We placed ours on our kitchen table and enjoyed them while we ate and schooled.)
• Watch the flowers over the next 4 to 7 days and use the questions and fun “lab sheets” to discuss and record what is happening to the flowers.

How long did it take to notice a slight tinge of color?

Take some photos of the flowers over the observation days.

Note where the water is in each vase at the start of the experiment. Ask some discussion questions:

• What do you think is going to happen to the level of water in the vase?
• If you think the water level is going to go down, where will the water go?
• This is a good time to talk about capillary action. Check out our printable with information and diagrams.
• Also notice the leaves and stem; watch them over the next few days too.

Check the water level after a few days. What happened?

What parts of the flower are changing color? Is it just the petals? Check out the entire length of the stem, leaves, and flower. Notice that our green also showed a border of yellow too!

More Capillary Action Activities

• Get Growing free printable – 50+ page printable covering plant life cycles, photosynthesis, capillary action, and more.
• Testing the Properties of Water
• Coffee filter painting

I hold a master’s degree in child development and early education and am working on a post-baccalaureate in biology. I spent 15 years working for a biotechnology company developing IT systems in DNA testing laboratories across the US. I taught K4 in a private school, homeschooled my children, and have taught on the mission field in southern Asia. For 4 years, I served on our state’s FIRST Lego League tournament Board and served as the Judging Director.  I own thehomeschoolscientist and also write a regular science column for Homeschooling Today Magazine. You’ll also find my writings on the CTCMath blog. Through this site, I have authored over 50 math and science resources.

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.

Other Fun Science Experiments for Kids

This rainbow  Walking Water Science Experiment  is one of our most popular science activities!

Try this super simple  Oobleck recipe  that only requires two household ingredients!

This rainbow skittles experiment is sure to WOW the kids!

Explore chromatography with this fun  chromatography science experiment  for kids!

This  rain cloud jar science experiment  give children a chance to explore clouds and rain in a hands-on and engaging way

The kids will get a kick out of this super cool  dancing raisins science experiment !

Looking for more fun science? Your kids will love these 30 science experiments !

Color-Changing Flowers – Capillary Action Science Experiment

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There are certain science projects that make you go WOW! This color changing flower activity is one of those! Children learn about capillary action for kids with this amazing, colorful flower experiment . Try this colour changing flower experiment with toddler, preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade and 4th garders too. Simply print pdf file with food coloring flower experiment worksheet and you are ready to play and learn with  flower science !

Color Changing Flowers

Children will be amazed by the dramatic change they will see in this  color changing flowers  project! In this  flower activity for kids children will be able to try a capilary action experiment that will allow them to visualize that scientific principle in a super cool  science experiment for kids . This  flower experiment is perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, and grade 4 students. Whether you are a parent looking for a fun  summer science , pretty  spring science , or simply a  flower science for your upcoming  botany lesson or  flower theme . A teacher planning a color changing flower experiment with free printable color changing flower experiment worksheets . Planning a summer camp and a WOW flower science expermint . Or perhaps you are a homeschooler looking to try the super cool food coloring flower experming with staggering results. No matter the reason, this amazing science experiment is quick, easy, memorable, and oh-so-beautiful!

Plus don’t miss the colorful rainbow density experiment , free mentos experiment worksheet , and volcano project ideas

Color changing flower experiment worksheet

Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >> _____ <<. The pdf file will open in a new window for you to save the freebie and print the template.

Capillary Action Experiment

All you need to try this fun  flower activity are a few simple materials:

• white carnations – one per color you’d like to try
• food coloring
• container or test tubes

Color Changing Flower Experiment

Trim the bottom of the flower stem to open up fresh veins and make the carnation flower fit in the conatiner of our choice. We used test tubes to feel more like a flower science experiment for kids. Now fill the conatiner almost to the top with really warm water and 20 drops+ of liquid food coloring. The warm water is key to achieving bright, bold colors as molecules in warm water are more active and will spread the water (filled with dye) up the veins in the flower stem to the white flower petals so they change colors.

Flower Experiment

You will see the experiment working by noticing color begin to appear on the petals very quickly.

Flower Science

To see the dramatic change of color you can see in our pictures, you will need about 4 days for the flowers to drink the water in a process called capillary action.

The colors are amazing, aren’t they! Kids of all ages are super impressed by this  easy science experiment !

Flower Science Experiment

These cut flowers allow us to see how plants use water they find in the soil up through their stem and move it to the flowers and leaves to keep the plant nourished. Just like people, plants need water to survive. The water travels up tiny tubes, or veins, in the plant by a process called Capillary Action. By placing colored dye in the container, we are able to observe capillary action at work.

Colour Changing Flower Experiment

So, what is capillary action ? Capillary action is the ability of a liquid (the colored water in our experiment) to spontaneously flow in up the flower stem without the help of an outside force such as gravity. As we talked about in this walking rainbow experiment – this happens when 3 forces called cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension work together. Water molecules stick together and as one molecule moves up the tubes in the stem, the rest of the molecules play follow the leader and follow up the veins.  The molecules pull each other along like a drawstring.

Food Coloring Flower Experiment

I love it when simple science experiments clearly explain a scientific concept, give kids a WOW that’s so cool moment, and get them excited to keep learning and exploring! These  flower activities are perfect for sparking curiousity and having fun with your children.

Put your dyed flowers together to make a lovely, colorful bouquet perfect to brighten up your house, give to grandma, mom, or your favorite teacher!

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• Seeds and Plants Unit filled with hands-on Plant Activities for Kindergarten
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• Free Printable Parts of a Plant Flipbook , Life Cycle of a Sunflower Worksheet Pack, Plant Life Cycle Worksheet s and Observation Book
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• Steps to Planting a Seed Worksheet
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Flower Activities

• Color changing Capillary Action Experiment with flowers , blooming paper flowers – simple Capillary Action expeirment with flowers , Simple Capillary action experiment with flowers , or color changing flower expeirment worksheet
• Sunflower Life Cycle Worksheets, counting seeds sunflower math activities , or this paper plate Sunflower craft
• Beautiful Flower Suncatcher Craft for kids, Fork art yellow Dandelion craft , or seeded dandellion craft , pretty zinnia fingerprint flower preschool , paper van gogh sunflowers for kids craft, purple Delphinium egg carton flowers , easy letter f handprint craft , or lacing flower craft
• Lots of Plant Activities for Kindergarten and grow a crystal flower science activities for preschoolers
• Build a Flower Digraph Worksheets alternative or rhyming flower cvc words
• Chromatography Flowers project for children or simple baking soda flower activity for preschoolers
• Flower telling timeworksheets pdf free , free printable sticker counting flower math activites for preschoolers , number names flower puzzle printable , printable shape flower craft , or shape flower playdough mats
• Spin Art Flower Craft Preschool , simply bow hyacinth flower craft , egg carton tulip craft ,
• Try our free printable Flower Scavenger Hunt or US state flowers activity
• Flower Parts of a Plant Flipbook or this easy jello pollination experiment
• Build fraction flowers activity or this part puzzle / worksheet flower fractions practice
• Stuning pasta flower craft , or flower pasta mosaic art , petty painted flower craft preschool , beautiful egg carton flowers , Lacing Craft with free cut out flower template
• Flower sight words game for 1st graders or flower sight word maze for kindergartners
• Flower Alphabet Matching printable puzzles, hands-on build a flower beginning sounds worksheets for kindergarten pdf
• Free Printable Flower Worksheet s, flower activity sheets for pre-k and kindergarten, or kindergarten flower counting worksheet
• Letter Matching Sunflower Alphabet Letters or ABC flower dot marker printable
• Printable Flower Name Craft or over 100 flower craft preschool and up
• See our themed flowers activities for preschoolers or a huge list of flower activities for preschoolers and kindergartners you can add to your lesson plan
• Don’t miss our flower books for preschoolers
• See all our flowers for kids free printables and activity ideas

Popular Science Activities

Looking for lots more fun, science experiments for kids? You’ve GOT to try some of these outrageously fun science experiments for kids! Plus don’t miss all our science for kids , types of  free science lessons , or seasonal  science experiments .

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• Color Changing Slime , colorful bubble snakes , neat burning candle experiment worksheet answers , fun Lego Zipline , look INSIDE a Volcano Project , or Exploding Watermelon
• Human Heart for Kids , hands-on Human Body Project , Eye opening Eye science experiments , Life Size Skeletal system science project , free parts of the brain worksheet , and playdough human body game
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Food Coloring Flower Experiment Worksheet

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Beth Gorden

Beth Gorden is the creative multi-tasking creator of 123 Homeschool 4 Me. As a busy homeschooling mother of six, she strives to create hands-on learning activities and worksheets that kids will love to make learning FUN! She has created over 1 million pages of printables to help teach kids ABCs, science, English grammar, history, math, and so much more! Beth is also the creator of 2 additional sites with even more educational activities and FREE printables – www.kindergartenworksheetsandgames.com and www.preschoolplayandlearn.com. Beth studied at the University of Northwestern where she got a double major to make her effective at teaching children while making education FUN!

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Thank you ma’am for your bright ideas. Am greatful for sharing your fun and full of knowledge activities. Kids will surely learn from this.

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Colour Changing Flowers Science Experiment - A fun science project for kids

MORE FUN SCIENCE PROJECTS FOR KIDS

Colour changing flowers science experiement for preschoolers.

Supplies needed for the colour changing flowers science experiment

• White flowers
• Glass jars (we used baby food jars)
• Liquid water colour or food colouring

What are the best flowers to use for the colour changing flower experiment?

How to set up the colour changing flowers experiment 

Step 1: get your supplies ready for the flower experiment and predict what will happen.

STEP 2: Fill glass jars with coloured water

STEP 3: Prepare the flowers

Step 4: place the flowers into the coloured water .

How long does it take to change the colour of a flower with food colouring or liquid watercolour?

The science behind the colour changing flowers science experiment. 

Cool Science Experiments for Preschoolers (and older kids too!)

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Color-Changing Flower Experiment

Ah, Spring. There’s something so special about watching the vegetation come back to life as the days get longer and warmer again. My older kiddo has made it a habit of searching for new flowers on each hike and neighborhood walk we take. He likes to use the Seek app on my phone to identify what type of flowers they are and then jot them down or draw them in his nature journal.

After one such walk and journaling session, we stopped by the local grocery store, and he spent some time admiring the brightly colored carnations on display. He asked me how they found such bright flowers, and I told him they used dye to make them that way. He looked a little baffled and asked, “you mean like with food dye?”. I nodded, which then prompted him to ask, “Can we do that with food dye?”.

I told him it was certainly worth a shot, so we purchased some white carnations and planned out our experiment. I absolutely love these moments in our homeschool. When I can say yes to his curiosity and head down a fun rabbit trail that will lead to both fun and the learning of concepts he can apply right away. Thankfully, this particular rabbit trail involved a pretty easy experiment that required very little prep and supplies. How could I say no to that?

There’s a good chance you have most of these things already at your fingertips (other than the flowers). All you need is:

White Carnations (other flowers work as well, such as daisies, but carnations are usually faster)

Clear cups with water

Color-Changing Flowers Experiment Worksheet (or science journal if you keep one!). I created this free printable option for you to download.

Pen/pencil and colored pencils or crayons to record your experiment and colors.

Let’s Experiment!

With supplies in hand, let’s get started!

Make your hypothesis! What do you think will happen to the flowers?

Choose which colors you want to try . My kids love rainbows, so we did red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Cut the flower stems at a 45-degree angle to fit the cups. This angle increases the surface area, which allows more water to travel up the stem. TIP: Avoid using dull tools to cut the stems since this can hinder their ability to uptake water.

Add water to the glasses (about ½ a cup should do the trick depending on cup size).

Add about 30 drops of food coloring (or more) to the cups and stir.

For orange, add 15 drops of red and 15 drops of yellow.

For purple, add around 20 drops of red and 10 drops of blue.

Add at least one flower to each cup.

Check the flowers every couple of hours to observe any changes.

After at least 6-8 hours, record your observations (we waited about 24 hours to record the results).

What happened to the flowers?

Did any colors work better than others?

Try This: If you want to take your experiment further, try carefully slicing a stem in half to place one half in one color and the other half in another color.

Our Results:

The first time we did this experiment years ago, our flowers just barely changed color at the tips of their petals. The colors that worked the best were the darker hues (especially blue), while the yellow barely showed up at all. We hypothesized that we didn’t use enough food dye in our original solution.

Fast-forward a few years, we tried this experiment again as part of our spring equinox celebration. After making some tweaks from our original experiment, we had much better results this year! We saw the colors leaching into the petals within an hour or so and saw quite a difference after 6 hours.

All of our solutions worked well to change the tips of the white flower petals to vibrant hues while also lightly coloring the rest of the petals. We discovered that our purple solution contained a bit too much blue dye (we did equal amounts of red and blue), so the petals took on a darker blue color rather than purple.

Tips for Making this Experiment a Success:

Cut the stems short enough that the flowers are just above the top of the cup (this provides a shorter distance for the water and dye to travel to the petals).

Use less water and more dye. The more saturated the dye, the more vibrant the colors.

Experiment with other types of white flowers to see if there is a difference in the vibrancy of the colors, the time it takes for the colors to reach the petals, or if some flowers show no change at all. We plan to play around with roses and daisies next.

The Science: Why Does This Happen?

We know that plants need water to survive, and while it is generally the roots that “drink” the water for a plant, even cut flowers can survive for a little while if placed in water. How, you ask? A little thing called capillary action, which moves the water (and anything in it) through the narrow space of the stem via cohesion (water molecules sticking to each other), adhesion (water molecules sticking to the molecules of the plant stem), and surface tension (the intermolecular attraction that pulls molecules of the water inward from the surface resulting in lower surface area). When these forces work together and become stronger than the force of gravity, water, nutrients, and even food dye can work their way up through the plant stem to the petals and leaves of the flower.

We split the stem of this carnation, placing half of the stem in the green dye and half in the blue dye

What Else Can Kids Learn During this Experiment?

Other than capillary action, cohesion, adhesion, etc. (which are pretty high level for our littlest learners), this experiment contains some stealth learning opportunities (my favorite kind!). You have math with the water measurement, stem length, and the number of dye drops. Scientific concepts are covered with learning the colors of the rainbow and learning to mix colors to make other colors. And let’s not forget about art as they take what they see in real life and transfer it to their paper!

For learners who are a bit older, you can use the scientific method to hypothesize what the results will show and draw conclusions based on what you observe over time. You are also throwing in some writing practice as they jot down their observations and conclusions (especially if you use the printable I included to help make this experiment a success).

You can get all of this with a pretty simple experiment that requires very few supplies! What other easy science experiments do you love? Let me know in the comments below!

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Easy Color Changing Flower Experiment: Science for Kids

So much of teaching and parenthood is magic- and seeing life through little eyes makes the “normal” seem even more magical. That’s why I love this Color Changing Flower experiment for kids SO much. It brings science and magic together, and the wonder on my student’s faces is ALWAYS worth the time taken to complete this flower project !

Recommended Grade Level:

Kindergarten

• Supply List
• Coordinating Activities

Materials for Color Changing Flower Experiment

• Food Coloring
• White Carnations or Daisies

Find Coordinating Resources

Before you begin the color changing flower experiment:.

One of the most entertaining, and best ways to engage your students is parts of an taking time to allow students to predict, or make their best guess about what might happen. The first step is to put out all of materials for them to see, and pose the question “Based on what we know about flowers, and the name of the experiment… what do we think we might be doing with these materials today?” Their answers may enlighten you to their misconceptions, and scientific background knowledge. They will almost always spur some great conversations. (And they will probably make you laugh!)

Supplies for the Color Changing Flower Experiment :

Step-by-Step Instructions for the Color Changing Flowers

Pour your food coloring into the jars you are using. (Clear jars will work best, so students can see which color each jar holds). The more food coloring you use, the deeper the color will be.

Add a similar amount of water into each jar or cup and stir in the food coloring. Then add your white carnation or daisy into the cups.

Teacher Tip: Be sure to cut each carnation or daisy to a size that is tall enough to be seen over the top of the cup, but not so long that is doesn’t sit deep in the water.

Step Three:

Sit and watch as the now colored water comes up into the white of your carnations or daisies!

Yay! You did it. What Now?

This color changing flower experiment is a great one to photograph before and after images of the daisies to show how differently they look with just the addition of color to the water!

Ways to Adapt The Color Changing Flower Experiment

• Explore Color – This is a great time to practice identifying and categorizing colors.
• Adding in Math: This flower graphing activity ties in flowers, math, and color identification! What more could you ask for to extend this activity?!

Color Changing Flower Experiment: STEM Activity for Kids

There are a WEALTH of learning opportunities when it comes to STEM in general! For this Color changing flower experiment, you can choose what standard or learning skill to focus on, based on the age of your students and what you want to highlight. Once you’ve sparked the student’s curiosity, check out the rest of our science experiment collection for more ideas!

STEM Vocabulary: primary colors, secondary colors, absorption, parts of a plant, cellulose fibers , and gravity/pull.

Color Vocabulary: This color changing flower experiment uses multiple colors to show absorption and how a plant can get water to the flower and petals through the capillary system. Then the pigment in the water dyes the white petals of the flower.

Scientific process: Any STEM activity or science experiment in preschool is an opportunity to explore the steps and processes of scientific experimentation! It is the perfect time for students to create questions, form hypotheses, and reflect on the results of the color changing flower experiment for a lesson your students won’t soon forget.

Learn More About How Water and Color Move

• Rainbow Walking Water Experiment
• Ocean Currents Experiment
• Skittles Rainbow Experiment

More Ways to Explore Using Flowers in the Classroom:

• May Flowers I Spy Activity for Preschoolers
• Easy Flower Soup Spring Sensory Bin For Kids
• Spring Flower Salt Painting for Kids

Frequently Asked Questions

These are frequently asked questions about Color Changing Flowers

Do I have to use gel food coloring?

Although we used gel food coloring with great results, liquid food coloring will work too!

Can I use another flowers besides carnations?

Absolutely! Whether you use carnations, daisies or even white roses- as long as the flower petals are white, the experiment will work the same way.

Recapping Color Changing Flowers STEM FOR KIDS

So if you’re looking for an engaging, magical science experiment to do in our classroom— look no further! Be sure to comment what color you want to try to turn your flowers with this color changing flower STEM!

Do you love this activity?

Pin it for later!

Spring Printables to Try:

• Spring Counting Book
• Spring Shapes Posters
• Spring Roll & Count

More Activities You’ll Love:

30+ Hands-On Flower Activities for Kids

Spring Flower Paper Plate Wreath Craft

Easter and Spring Sensory Bin

More stem ideas:.

• Shaving Cream Rain Clouds
• Magnet STEM Investigation
• Earth Day Baking Soda & Vinegar Experiment

35+ Spring Math and Literacy Activities

Included in the Spring Math and Literacy Activities:

• 2 Sets of Spring Number Mats (empty ten-frame, heart filled ten-frame)
• Strawberry Beginning Sound Match Up
• 4 Sets of Spring Clip Cards (color, ten-frame, array, shape)
• Spring Flower Color Sort
• Class Set of Spring BINGO
• 2 Graphing Dice Games (Matching pictures and Numbers 1-6)
• 2 Spinner Graphing Games
• Spring Theme Line Tracing Cards & Picture Tracing Cards
• Line-Up Puzzles for Counting to 5 & 10
• 4 Matching Games (picture, number, alphabet, rhyme)
• Strawberry Missing Number Cards
• 3 Levels of AB Patterns
• Spring Shape Play Dough Mats
• 2 Sets of Counting to 10 Puzzles (array, ten-frame)
• Spring Shape Puzzles
• 2 Roll and Count Mats
• 2 Sets of Spring Sorting Activities (shapes and numbers 1-10)
• 5 Spin & Cover Games (1-5, 6-10, shape, picture)
• Raindrop Ten-Frame Cards
• Spring Bugs Tic-Tac-Toe
• 4 Sets of Tracing Cards (uppercase, lowercase, number, shape)
• Visual Discernment Clip Cards (What does not belong?)
• Trace, Write & Draw the Room

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Looking for more? Find exactly what you need here:

Kim Staten is a mother of four children ages 20, 19, 16, and 12. Kim has taught at the preschool, kindergarten and early elementary levels for 16 years. With extensive experience working with special needs children, including her own children with special needs (Rett Syndrome, autism, anxiety, and ADHD), she creates hands-on curricula and activities that are great for working with children of all abilities in the classroom and at home. Hands-on, accessible activities are her passion. 

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Color Changing Flowers

A color changing flower experiment is a wonderfully simple science experiment you can do any time of the year. Also great for both the Spring season, Valentine’s Day or St Patrick’s Day! Fun kitchen science that is super easy to set up and is perfect for home or in the classroom. We love science activities for all seasons!

Explore Color Changing Flowers For Spring Science

Why not pick up some simple white flowers at the grocery store and pull out the food coloring. This color changing flower science experiment is a STEMy activity (pun intended).

Get ready to add this simple color changing carnations experiment to your spring STEM lesson plans this season.

Let’s get started if you want to learn about how water moves through plants and how the plant’s petals can change color. While you’re at it, make sure to check out these other fun  Spring STEM activities.

Plus, you don’t have just to use carnations, either. Observe capillary action with this walking water experiment, too! Learn all about capillary action with a hands-on science experiment.

Tips For Setting Up Your Experiment

Use a timer.

Although this color-changing flowers science project takes some time to see the results fully, check in on it occasionally and observe the changes in the flowers.

Set a timer every so often and have your kids record any changes over a day! Set it up in the morning and observe the changes at different times.

Apply The Scientific Method

You can turn these color changing flower activities into a science experiment in a couple of ways:

• Compare results using different types of white flowers. Does the type of flower make a difference?
• Keep the type of white flower the same, but try different colors in the water to see if that makes a difference.

Learn more about applying the scientific method for kids and how to choose variables .

Give It A Valentine’s Day or St Patrick’s Day Theme

This experiment is fun and easy for Valentine’s Day science or St Patrick’s Day STEM activities . All you need to do is change out the colors of the food coloring you use. Choose pink for Valentine’s Day and green for a St Patrick’s Day theme.

Color Changing Flower Experiment

• White flowers (experiment with different varieties)
• Vases or mason jars
• Food coloring

Instructions:

STEP 1:   Trim the stems of the white flowers (carnations work really well but these are what our local store had at the time) at an angle under water.

STEP 2: Squirt several drops of each color food into different glasses and fill halfway with water.

STEP 3: Place one flower into each jar of water.

STEP 4: Watch your carnations change color.

The Science of Color Changing Flowers

Turn beautiful white carnations into pink, blue or even green flowers. But how does it work?

The cut flowers take up the colored water through their stem and the water moves from the stem to the flowers and leaves. Water travels up tiny tubes in the plant by a process called capillary action . Putting a colored dye in the water in the vase allows us to observe capillary action at work.

What is capillary action?

Capillary action is the ability of a liquid (our colored water) to flow in narrow spaces (the flower stem) without the help of an outside force, like gravity.

As water evaporates from a plant, it is able to be pull up more water through the plant’s stem. As it does so, it attracts more water to come alongside it. This is called transpiration and cohesion.

Capillary action relies on the cohesive and adhesive properties of water molecules. Water molecules are attracted to each other (cohesion) and to the walls of the capillaries (adhesion). These properties help water move against gravity and through narrow spaces.

Transpiration is the process where water vapor leaves the plant through the leaves. As water evaporates from the leaves, it creates a negative pressure (tension) in the xylem, pulling more water up from the roots.

Helpful Resources To Get You Started

Here are a few resources that will help you introduce science more effectively to your kiddos or students and feel confident yourself when presenting materials. You’ll find helpful free printables throughout.

• Best Science Practices (as it relates to the scientific method)
• Science Vocabulary
• 8 Science Books for Kids
• All About Scientists
• Free Science Worksheets
• Science Supplies List
• Science Tools for Kids

Free Printable Spring STEM Cards

Free spring stem guide and challenge cards.

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Check out more fun spring science ideas!

Check out our list of plant activities for preschoolers , and plant experiments for elementary . Here’s a few of our favorites…

• Start a Seed Germination Jar
• How Do Leaves Drink?
• How Do Trees Breathe?
• Make Homemade Seed Bombs

Printable Spring Activities Pack

If you’re looking to grab all of the printables in one convenient place plus exclusives with a spring theme, our 300+ page Spring STEM Project Pack is what you need!

Weather, geology, plants, life cycles, and more!

11 Comments

Great ideas. Really useful. Thanks a lot.

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Toddler and preschool activities

Written by Nadia T • Sep 19, 2022 • Leave a Comment

Color Changing Flowers Science Experiment

Color-changing flowers are a great science activity for kids. They’ll love seeing the flowers change color, almost right before their eyes. A fun and beautiful option to showcase science!

The best part about this color-changing flower activity is that it’s simple for all ages to do. You can use this as a fun science activity for kids – or a really unique way to create a vibrant bouquet of flowers as well.

Be sure to check out my Rainbow Colors Science Experiment For Kids for another really great STEM activity that they’re certain to love.

Color Changing Flowers

What is the science behind color changing flowers.

The kids will love seeing capillary action happening right before their eyes! This is where the liquid actually defies gravity and flows upward, which is really cool to see.

How long does it take for a flower to change color with food coloring?

The process will vary depending on the type of flower and the length of the flower stem. You should start to see some color within 2-3 hours, and the flower should be fully colored within 24 hours.

What type of flowers works best?

Since the petals are the main part of the flower that is getting the color, you can use white flowers, or carnations to show off the liquid food coloring.

A hydrangea color change is really a great flower to watch and see through the process as well.

Watch the video below to see my color changing flowers experiment

Supplies needed for this fun science experiment

• Glass vases or cups – You just need something that can hold the flowers in place.
• Food coloring – I use simple colors, but you can use any colors that you want to change the flowers.
• Flowers – I used white roses, but you can change it up and try a different type of flower.

How to do this fun flower science activity

You can easily do this in a classroom or right at home! This capillary action experiment is the perfect way to show early learners that science is fun!

Start by lining up the glass vases and filling them with water. Add 10-15 drops of food coloring, but only one color, to each vase. You’re wanting to make bright and distinct colors on the flowers, so don’t mix them.

This is great for kids of all ages to help with as they can work on their fine motor skills and counting skills by helping to add in the drops!

Once the drops are added, it’s time to add the flower into the colored water. (Make sure that you trim the stem a bit so that it’s cut slightly at an angle before adding to the vase)

As you can see, the flowers will stay perfectly white in the vase for quite some time.

This is a great time to talk to the kids about the new experiment and have them guess (or make a hypothesis) how long it will take for the dye to color the flower completely.

How long does the color changing flower experiment take?

Remind the kids to be patient! For the new colors to happen, it will take several hours!

You can have the kids take notes about what they see and what they think about the process. This will help to teach them about documenting during experiments as a real scientist would!

What will the kids learn from this colored flower experiment?

They’ll actually learn quite a few things! First, they’ll learn how the flowers actually drink water, up through the stem.

Secondly, they’re going to realize that the food coloring traveling to the stem shows the ability of a liquid and the journey that it takes to hydrate the whole flower.

It’s a really fun experiment that I think they’re going to love.

What age group is this experiment geared towards?

As long as there is supervision, preschool learners and kindergarteners can be a part of this experiment! It’s one that they’ll have a blast doing and learn so much from!

More Science Experiments for Kids

• Homemade Thermometer Science Experiment – Making a DIY STEM Thermometer
• Magnetic Building Blocks Benefits – Best Magnetic Tiles for Kids
• Pop Rocks and Soda Experiment
• Walking Water Experiments For Kids

Nadia is a mom of 4, with a passion for making childhood education fun through play. She encourages parents to spend quality time with their kids through fun kids activities and enjoys art, traveling, and doing activities with her children.

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Color Changing Flowers

It’s easy to see how plants drink water by doing this simple science experiment: Color Changing Flowers. Learn about plant biology and create a beautiful flower rainbow the kids will love. It’s a must-try kids’ plant experiment!

And for endless science fun, check out our 30 Science Experiments in our shop!

Getting Ready

This experiment can be done with any white flower. Carnations, daisies and white roses will all yield gorgeous results.

We live next to a field with hundreds of wild white daisies growing in it. One sunny day we took a walk and picked a handful.

Once we got home we filled six small film canisters with water and then dripped about 3 drops of food coloring in each one. We made an entire rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. The kids placed a few flowers in each container and then we waited to see what would happen.

Color Changing Daisies

It took a few hours for anything visual to happen. During that time, we talked about how plants drink water.

I asked the kids how very tall plants get water all the way up to their highest leaves, branches and flowers. The kids had lots of very funny and creative ideas!

I guided the discussion to lead my children to the conclusion that plants absorb water through their roots in the ground. Water moves from the roots up through the stem and into the leaves and flowers through tissue called xylem.

After a couple of hours we started to see blue-tinged petals on the flower in the blue water. Little by little, each of the other flowers changed colors, too! It was interesting to note that some of the colors, like blue and purple, were more vibrant than other colors, like orange and yellow.

We left our color changing daisies overnight to develop. The next morning we had a beautiful daisy rainbow.

How Plants Drink Water

As mentioned above, water moves through plants through the xylem . But how does water defy gravity and move upward to the very highest leaves of a tree?

The answer lies in capillary action , which is defined as the process that plants use to pull water up from the ground. There are several factors that enable capillary action to happen.

First is the force of adhesion, which is the attraction between water molecules and plant fibers.

Second is the force of cohesion, which is the attraction of one water molecule to another water molecule.

Third is transpiration. When water evaporates from the leaves, buds, and petals of a plant, more water is drawn upward to fill in the empty space. It is similar to what happens when a person sucks water through a straw.

All three of these factors combine to enable a plant to draw water from the ground and distribute it throughout the entire plant. Doing this color changing flower experiment makes it easy to see how capillary action works.

Must-Try Science Activities

Continue the science fun with our 30 Science Experiments – complete with a no prep journal!

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Color Changing Flowers Experiment for Kids

Shared by Mary Catherine 2 Comments

If you’re a fan of easy science experiments for kids at home or school, this color changing flowers experiment is right up your alley!

You don’t need many materials for this classic experiment, and it has a big wow factor for the kids! Plus, it’s an incredibly easy way to explore the scientific method with young children.

This color changing flower experiment also helps children learn how flowers take in water. It quite literally makes the process more visible so the kids can get a better grasp of the concept.

Related: Spring Activities for Preschoolers

While this is not an instant experiment, the results are still exciting for preschoolers. And it’s always fun to see them ooh and aah over the beautiful results.

Set up for the flower color changing experiment is super easy. You can even move onto another activity while the flowers do their thing. In fact, after the instructions you’ll find several ideas for flowers activities to try while you’re waiting. After all, can we ever get enough flowers?

Table of Contents

Color Changing Flowers

Below I’ll share what we did for the dyed flower experiment. But keep in mind that you an make changes along the way as you prefer. There are a few different ways this can go, so don’t feel like you have to do things exactly the same way!

Materials for the Color Changing Flowers Experiment

Carnations are the perfect choice for color changing experiments. They’re sturdy with lots of petals to soak up all that dye. Plus they are easy to find at most grocery stores.

Of course, you can use any white flowers for this color changing experiment. If there aren’t any pick-able flowers near you at the moment, grab a bunch or two at the grocery store or florist. Carnations and daisies seem to be the flowers I’ve seen used most often for color experiments. But feel free to try different white flowers and compare the results.

Here’s what you will need (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):

• White flowers (we used carnations for this project – cut stems down to about 5 inches)
• Cups or jars
• Food coloring

Since this experiment really only takes 3 supplies, I included some fun flower book ideas. Why not take the time to read a few books about flowers to the kids while you wait for the flowers to soak up their color? They’ll enjoy learning more about flowers, and you can make it a whole day dedicated to everything flowers!

I love easy experiments like this one for preschoolers, especially when you are short on time!

How Does the Color Changing Flower Experiment Work?

Here are the simple directions for this simple flower science experiment!

• Fill each cup about 3/4 of the way with water.
• Add 20 drops of desired food coloring to each cup and stir. 
• Place a flower in each cup.
• Watch and observe what happens over time. You’ll start to see the flowers changing color based on what color you added to the water as time passes. 
• Observe flowers for at least 24 hours for best results. 
• Optional: Remove some of the petals from each flower and observe the petals 

This is a great time to have a discussion with your preschoolers about flowers and how the water travels through them. You can go over the parts of a flower with them. On a carnation you’ll be able to point out the petals, stem, leaves, and maybe some buds.

The Scientific Method with Flowers

The color changing flowers experiment is a great time to touch on the scientific experiment. Yes, preschoolers can do this! The basics of the scientific method are as follows:

• Analyze the data
• Discuss data and observations

Start off by asking the children what they think will happen with the dyed water and the white flowers. Some of them may have done this experiment before, and that’s fine. You’re just getting them to think and hypothesize like scientists.

Next, set everything up to test their theories. Then encourage the kids to check in with the flowers every hour or so. If possible, have a way for the children to record their observations. This can be as simple as blank paper and crayons! Even better – keep track of things as a class, too. This can be done on a large sheet of paper.

Once the color changing flowers have run their course, sit down and look at the information you collected. Lead a discussion on what the kids observed throughout the process. You can then explain that flowers need water to live, just like we do. Unlike people, flowers get water and nutrients by pulling them up through their stems. The colored water shows the dispersion of this water.

Optionally, but this might be a fun addition to the experiment: have the kids draw a flower, complete with roots, stem, leaves, buds, and flower. Then let them choose what color dye they would use in the water and color their flower that color.

How Long Does It Take for a Flower to Change Color with Food Coloring?

While you are reading abut flowers or working on other flower activities, you may notice your kids peeking at the color-changing flowers.

It usually takes the flowers about an hour to start showing a little bit of color in their petals, but it can take up to 24 hours. So if the color looks pale at first, keep checking back throughout the day to see how the color has changed.

If you’d like, you can observe the flowers in regular intervals. Then work with the kids to keep track of how they change in terms of color saturation.

What is the Purpose of the Color Changing Flowers Activity?

If you want to get further into the science behind why flowers change color during this experiment, and why this is relevant, you can explain to the kids about capillary action.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey , capillary action is when water climbs up the open areas inside of plants and flowers from the ground, up through their roots, stems, and all through the whole plant. The water can move up the plant because its tiny molecules “stick” to the edges of the spaces it moves through and get pushed up.

Capillary action ensures that all the parts of the flower (or plant) get fed and stay healthy.

More Flower Activities for Preschoolers

These flower activities are perfect to work on with your preschoolers while you are waiting for the color changing flowers results. Choose a few to explore with your kids, and you’ll have given them a lot of great exposure to flowers as a learning tool!

• These flower sensory bottles are perfect for spring and add a playful activity to flower science.
• Your kids will have so much fun using kitchen utensils to make these flower prints .
• Flower shape mats will let you practice some math skills with your preschoolers.
• I love this festive and clear flower slime as a hands-on sensory activity.
• Embrace the mess as your kids dig into this garden messy play small world .
• Numbers are made into a fun and festive activity with this flower math activity .
• Another active way to practice adding, your kids will have fun with this planting flowers math game .

The best part about this flower color changing experiment is that you can keep the flowers around for a few days after the experiment. For this reason, you may want to make extras, or even use this as an opportunity to practice color mixing with some of the dyes. See how many colors of flowers you can create!

Preschool Flower Lesson Plans

Let Preschool Teacher 101 make your teaching life easier with fully-developed, done-for-you preschool resources. That way you spend more time teaching and living your life, and less time planning!

These complete set of preschool lesson plans set of preschool lesson plans gives you a week full of flower-themed math, literacy, science, art activities and more. Click on the image below to see a preview and get yours.

And of course we have even more spring learning resources available. Go ahead and click each image to read more and grab your own copies in our store:

And be sure to join The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101’s waiting list so you’re the first to know when our membership opens up next.

You can also find us on Teachers Pay Teachers .

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March 6, 2024 at 6:43 pm

This is super cool. I will have to show this to our daughter and DIL to do with their kiddos. Thanks so much for participating and sharing at SSPS 300. See you again next week!

March 6, 2024 at 6:45 pm

It really is such fun for the kids! Thanks so much, Esme. 🙂

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Free Worksheets

Social studies, amazing food coloring flower science experiment w/ free worksheet.

This super easy Flower Science Experiment will help kids understand parts of a flower, the flower life cycle, and capillary action – all with a stunningly beautiful flower activitiy for kids! Using this  flower experiment , children will be able to color flowers – even making white flowers into 2-color flowers! Try this  flower dyeing experiment with preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th grade students. This  color changing flower experiment is such an EPIC  kindergarten science experiment.  Grab the free printable  food coloring flower experiment worksheet and get started!

Flower dye experiment

Food coloring flower experiment worksheet.

Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >> _____ <<. The pdf file will open in a new window for you to save the freebie and print the template.

Color changing flower experiment worksheet

Start out by filling four clear glasses with water and 30 drops of food coloring – use any colors you like.

Color changing flowers worksheet

We’ve tried this  flower science for kids with carnations before and just haven’t had the amazing results as we did this time. I highly suggest  using gerbera daisy flowers for this experiment.

Start by trimming several inches off the bottom of all your flowers. That makes sure the pores are open and ready for capillary action to occur quickly.

Dyed flowers experiment

If you would like to really WOW your kids I suggest using a utility knife , carefully cut  the flower stem in the middle from the bottom up about 6″. This will allow you to color one flower with two colors! This is an EPIC spring and summer  flower science projects .

Dyed flower experiment

Now, for this flower science project , place one flower in each colored water cup. Take the flower whose stem you cut in half and put one part of the stem in one color and the other part of the stem in the other colored water. This flower will be drinking water from both the colors which will result in the food coloring going into different parts of the flower and even combining at some spots for some beautiful color mixing.

Printable food coloring flower experiment worksheet

Get ready to be amazed with this flower science experiments — within a couple hours,you will start seeing the results of your flower activity.

Flower dyeing experiment

So besides the “Wow effect” your kids are about to experience, what is the science behind what’s going on?

When plants are in the ground they get their water by pulling in up their their roots. Once inside the flower stem, tiny tubes called xylem take the water to the plant’s flowers and leaves. The flower stem is like you getting water through a straw! This experiment allows kids to see that happen because the flowers will drink the colored water by pulling it up their straw, the flower stem. Kids will know the water has reached the flower when the petals start showing the colors in the water.

Splitting the stem allows the flower straw to pull up two different colors of water to two different parts of the flower through capillary action.

Dying flowers

Within an hour, you will start to see the leaves are turning the color of the water they were resting in.

Flower experiment

Look how stunning this flower looks after drinking  blue colored water all day. Cool right? This is such a fun way to teach kids about capillary action!

Capillary action for kids

Look how cool the flowers look when you split you stem and make bicolor  flowers. Super cool, right! If you look carefully the area between the yellow and the blue looks a little green. There is some color mixing taking place as well in this dying flowers.

Color changing flowers

Some of our flowers didn’t color exactly symmetrically, but then again, we probably didn’t cut the stem perfectly even either. I think our coloring flowers came out so cool! Make sure you see all our Kindergarten Science Activities!

Flower Printables

Looking for some fun more  flower worksheets and  flower activities for kids ? Add these ideas to your  flower theme .

• Cute, free printable Flower Shape Craft for kids
• Flower Rhyming Words Worksheet
• Sunflower Alphabet Matching
• Flower Mazes – Free Printable Sight Word Worksheets
• Pretty Flower Name of Number Puzzles
• F is for Flower Handprint Craft
• Practice making shapes with these flower playdough mats
• Spring Flower Counting Games for Preschoolers
• Flower Letter Matching Printable
• Grow a Plant Sequencing Worksheets
• Fun Spring Flower SIght Word Game
• Flower Parts of a Plant Flipbook

Fun Science Experiments

Here are some of our most popular lessons and activities or see all our science for kids conveniently sorted!

• 30 Simple Machines for Kids Experiments
• Launch this experiment and record your findings with this Coke and mentos experiment worksheet
• Lots of FUN Solar System Project Ideas for kids
• Printable Solar System Worksheets (free) or planet worksheets for kindergarten
• Grab these free printable solar system coloring pages
• Life-size Human Body Project with free printable body parts
• Colorful Capillary action science experiment (also known as walking water)
• 100 Amazing Food science experiments  – arranged by type of science
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• Learn about famous female inventors with this read, color, and learn booklet for kids
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• Older students can dive deeper with these free skeletal system worksheet pages
• Amazing Why do leaves change color experiment
• Learn about seasons with this cool free 4 seasons printables
• Animals and their Babies matching puzzles
• Take a closer look at animals with this free printable animal report for for kids

Science Exeriments for Kids

Looking for lots more fun, science experiments for kids? You’ve GOT to try some of these outrageously fun science experiments for kids! We have so many fun, creative and easy science experiments for elementary age children:

• How to Make a Lava Lamp – super easy and SO cool!
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• Make it rain and write your observations in these cloud in a jar experiment worksheet
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• Free Water Cycle Worksheets for kids
• Discover a world of geology with these rock worksheets for kids
• Free printable states of matter activity with clip cards
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• LOTS of year-round Science Experiments for Kids
• Kids will love this outrageously fun pipe clean constellations activity
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• Amaze kids with this simple burning candle experiment with free worksheets

Easy Science Experiments

Explore our science projects based on all science for kids , types of  free science lessons , or seasonal  science experiments .

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• Easy-to-make balloon hoovercraft
• Bouncy Eggs and eggs in vinegar experiment worksheet
• Learn about density for kids with these simple balloon solid, liquid, gas hands-on activities
• Create your own super simple bot
• Beautiful, color changing capillary action experiment with flowers
• WOW your kids with how to make a Newton’s cradle project
• Heat-sensitive, Color Changing Slime is SO COOL!

Learn about amazing plants for kids iwith this intersting and fun botany lesson for kids ! From fascinating facts about plants for kids,  plant worksheets , hands-on  plant activities , creative  plant experiments , and even tests with answer keys to test what your child has learned, you will love this fun  printable science lesson for kids ! Use this  plant lesson with first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th graders too.

 >>>> Get our plant lesson here <<<<<

Flower experiments

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Posted on Last updated: October 18, 2021 By: Author Kim

Categories STEM Activities

Colored Flower Experiment: Spring Science for Kids

Colored flower experiment, spring science for kids.

• Ages: Toddler , Preschool , PreK, Kindergarten
• Difficulty: Easy
• Learning: STEM , Capillary Action

Want to learn how to turn white flowers into any color you want? And want to learn a little science while you do it?

Then you have got to try this colored flower science experiment. It is super simple to set up and really wows. Plus your child can learn how plants drink water. Don’t worry, I’ve even included all the definitions you will need for your discussions.

You will love this beautiful science experiment that dyes flowers so easily. It’s a perfect science experiment for preschool, toddler, and even older kids. (Think kindergarten and early elementary kids learning about plants!)

Here is how to do a colored flower experiment.

What's In This Post?

Colored Flower Experiment

Supplies for colored flower experiment, how flowers drink water, capillary action, transpiration, photosynthesis, vascular plants, let’s find your next fun activity, instructions.

This is a simple science experiment, and it will wow your kids. You will need a little patience though. While it comes together quickly there is some down time while the science happens.

You only need a few things for this STEM activity.

• White Flowers (Carnations work really well)
• Food Coloring

That’s really all this activity needs. I know the white flowers aren’t something that I usually have at home, but it’s always nice to have an excuse to buy flowers.

Instructions for you Colored Flower Science Experiment

The set up for this experiment is really easy.

Step 1: Take your white flower and trim it down so you only have a short stem. Trim it on a diagonal.

Step 2: Fill a cup with water and add 10-15 drops of food coloring. (Note: Warm water helps the experiment happen a little faster.)

Step 3: Put your cut flower in the cup with colored water. You can do as many flowers and colors as you like! I suggest doing several, as this is cool to see.

Step 4: Now we wait. Yeah, that’s hard for little ones, but it is worth it. After a couple of hours you will start to see the petals on your flowers change color to match that of the water they are in!

Step 5: You can leave these overnight of even for a few days to see how the colors look and chance. Enjoy!

This is a very safe activity. Be careful when trimming the stems of your flowers and avoid spilling food coloring all over the place. (That’s more of a mess thing than a safety thing, but still a good idea.)

The Science of the Colored Flower Experiment

So how are our flowers changing color without touching the color to the petals themselves?

We know flowers and plants in general need water to survive. But they don’t have mouths to drink like people do. So how do they get their water?

Plants ‘drink’ through their roots. They take in water from the ground and it travels up their stems to the leaves and flowers. There it can be used to help make food for plants. (Plants make food through photosynthesis .)

So is the stem like a straw? Flowers use it to drink water, but stems aren’t quite like the drinking straws we use that are just empty tubes.

The water is sucked up through the straw by capillary action. Vascular plants like carnations and roses have tubes called xylem and phloem that run up and down the stem. Water sticks together through cohesion and surface tension, and this allows it to climb up a stem. This is the capillary action that is taking place.

For our color changing flowers, this is how the colored water travels up the stem and into the white flower petals.

Capillary action brings the colored water up to the flower, but how exactly is that color changing the white flowers? Transpiration is key for this.

Transpiration is the process of evaporation from the petals of a flower or a plant’s leaves. Water travels up the stem to the flowers. The flowers don’t actually need all that water to complete photosynthesis, so the extra evaporates out. The color from the food coloring stays behind in the petals though, and this is how we get the colored petals.

This water loss also creates low pressure in the petals and leaves, which causes the plant to drink up more water through the stem.

You have got to try these fun activities!

Vocabulary To Know

This process gives us the chance to explore some new vocabulary. Remember, it is not super important that your children memorize these definitions and know them perfectly.

A goal is to explain the science of what is happening in this project. But the main goal is really to expose kids to this sort of terminology. It demystifies it later in life and is helpful in growing their language and vocabulary skills.

Here are some definitions to help in your discussions.

Cohesion is a mutual attraction between like molecules that helps them stick together. In this experiment, the water molecules stick together through cohesion and pull themselves up the stems.

Cohesion creates a uniform mixture (like our all water). It is responsible for surface tension.

Adhesion is like cohesion, only it is the mutual attraction between unlike molecules. This is what makes things stick together like tape sticking to a piece of paper.

Adhesion is responsible for creating a meniscus when water is in a cylinder.

Capillary action is when liquids move up a solid through adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension.

In our activity the water moves up the stem of a flower because of the capillary action caused by cohesion.

Phloem are tiny tubes in plants that bring food made in the leaves down to the rest of the plant. (It is helpful to compare them to veins and arteries in people.)

Xylem are tiny tubes in plants that help support the plant. They also bring water and nutrients up from the roots to the top parts of the plant. (Again, it is helpful to compare these to veins and arteries in people.)

Photosynthesis is the process of using sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into food for a plant. It usually involves chlorophyll and it produces oxygen as a result.

Transpiration is the evaporation of water from leaves and flowers.

Vascular plants are plants that have specialized parts to move water and nutrients through them, like the phloem and xylem. Carnations are vascular plants.

Beautiful Science Experiment for Kids

I think this is a beautiful science experiment. It’s simple to put together, but it really helps kids understand what is going on inside of a plant.

Colored Flower Science Experiment

Make beautiful colored flowers while you learn about how plants drink water!

• White Carnations (roses and daisies work too)
• Scissors or a Knife
• Take your cups and fill them partway with warm water. Add about 15 drops of food coloring to each cup.
• Cut your flower stems down to fit into your cups. Cut the stem on an angle for best results.
• Place a flower in each cup and wait. The flowers will drink the colored water and the flower will change colors!

Darker colors will show up better in the petals.

This is a simple science experiment, but it requires some downtime while the flowers drink. So set it up and go do something else for a bit. Check in on your flowers throughout the day to monitor the changes. (Though you will sometimes see the color change after just a short time!)

This is a pretty safe activity. But make sure there is adult supervision when cutting the flower stems.

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Color Changing Flower Experiment

Source: Hands On Teaching Ideas This Color Changing Flower experiment is one that I have done many times over the years, both at home and in my classroom. I love doing the experiment for several reasons. First children always love it! It helps them learn about how plants ‘drink’ water with a very clear visual representation. Read more on Hands on Teaching Ideas!

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