Not only is this experiment super-quick and easy and super-fun but it’s the perfect excuse to treat yourself to some flowers too!

What do I need?

• White flowers
• Food colouring
• Glass of water
• Scissors
• Pipette (optional)

How do I do it?

STEP1 – First up, half fill your glass with water and add some food colouring. If you have different colours
available then fill up a couple of different glasses.

STEP2 – Get an adult to help out with the scissors and trim your flowers so they are the right length to stand nicely in your glass.

STEP3 – Submerge one white flower in each of your cups of coloured water!

STEP4 – Wait...

STEP5 – And wait...you’ll probably have to leave your flowers overnight to really see what’s happening.

STEP6 – Examine your flowers and think about how that could have happened?

What’s going on?

The first thing is that colouring the water doesn’t really change the science of what’s happening here. All it does is enable us to see what’s going on. Generally plants “suck” water up through their roots and then all the way to their petals. This water then evaporates into the air.

The fascinating thing about this experiment is that this process isn’t really changed by cutting through the stem of the flower. The flower still “sucks” up the water in much the same way and as we coloured the water we can see the petals change colour.

More Fun Please! - Experiment like a real scientist!

•  Which colour makes the most impact? Why do you think this is?
• Does using hot or cold water make any difference?
• Which type of flowers change the most and which change fastest?