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Fun with Foliage
The Joys of Springtime Planting
By Penny Powell
Gardening with your child is a fun way to bond, get some exercise and soak up some extra vitamin D from the sun's rays. Have you ever thought of how fun and amazing it would be to plant a bulb this spring that could grow taller than your child?
Cannas Can't Be BeatIn full to partial sunlight, try planting canna tubers, a colorful, tall and bushy plant, and then get your measuring stick ready and be prepared to stand in awe right alongside your child. "Cannas grow very tall (about 4 to 5 feet) and come in red, yellow, orange, pink or salmon-colored flowers," says Lesley Royce, naturalist at Westside Regional Park in Jacksonville, Fla. Royce, who teaches a variety of nature programs for parents and children, encourages the use of a yard stick for tracking growth of cannas. "Keep a chart that shows how tall the plant is each week," Royce says. "You could even take a picture of your child standing next to the plant."
Royce, lovingly known as "The Butterfly Lady" to some of her students, knows that cannas "are the host plant for some types of Skippers, a type of butterfly," she says. "If you can tolerate the leaves being chewed by caterpillars, turn this event into another educational experience. Have the child look for the caterpillars on the plant and observe how the caterpillar's body is somewhat transparent, and you can see the chewed leaves as they go through the digestive system. You could even raise the caterpillar in a critter cage, feeding it fresh canna leaves every day, and then observe the caterpillar [making] its chrysalis, later emerging as an adult Skipper."