Capillary action of plants is revealed by food coloring experiment by placing flowers and celery in water with food coloring. We had some success and a failure. Plants use capillary action to bring water up the roots and stems to the rest of the plant. Be sure to scroll down for free student observation PDF to download.
First, we tried baby’s breath and some antique Carnation flowers that had been in an arrangement (so they were not quite fresh). Basically, it didn’t work. I asked the kind florist at Maple Grove Whole Foods who explained I waited too long. We enjoyed our flowers first and then tried to see if the capillary action of plants could be demonstrated. She said just like a Christmas tree stops drinking water, the flowers did, too. That is a good analogy for children. We added food coloring to the older flowers in the first attempt. Too late!
If At First You Don’t Succeed
We had no luck with these even after several days. I thought it should have only taken several hours. We started over!
Fresh Carnations from the Florist
Next, we actually went to the florist and bought real and fresh carnations. Sarah is the Outstanding Employee from Whole Foods who was kind enough to help me and figured out “old fashioned” carnations would have worked better. I had noticed many people used carnations for this experiment so there must be a reason why. For good measure, we also bought celery for the same reason, I have noticed online many people use celery to demonstrate capillary action in plants. Here they are ready to absorb the food coloring! 
After a few hours, we had action and could observe some changes. Blue worked the best, and purple worked OK. That orange looked like it might not work, and it never did work on the flower even though I added more food coloring. Orange did work well for the celery. You can see some blue around the tips of the celery leaves, also.
By the next day, more color was showing except for the white flower in the orange food coloring. It was easiest to observe by removing the plants from the test tubes and colored water.
We tried to see what had happened with close observation.
Download Your Observation Pages
The free student observation pages to download are here. Below are the pictures of the two pages included. First is the celery page picture.
This is what the carnation page looks like. Just print the page or pages wanted.
Once we had the magnifying glasses out, of course, there were more things around the house to observe. What was inside the Paper Lantern plants?
And how about the pine cones we painted last year? They needed a close up look, too.
We hope you have fun learning if you try this experiment! Just remember to get fresh flowers and or celery. Carolyn
You might also like these posts Sarah the Whole Foods Florist helped me with, the Amaryllis post and the Bonasi trees post.
Our experience with a Bonsai trees seed kit.
Science Free
This page has links to free science printable blog posts. The printables and resources are available at the blog post links. There are more, so please use the search bar in the top right of each page to search for other resources.
The bubbling snowman is simply a version of using baking soda and vinegar which children never seem to become tired of doing. When the bubbling begins, it looked like it is snowing. Please see the blog post here for more information and a short video.
Vertebrates/invertebrates sort, free PDF, instant download at the blog post.
Leaf-shaped 3-part cards printable — download at this blog post link.
Math and nature Fibonacci posters can be downloaded in the free eMember area.
Links to several science posts about bugs, insects, bees, butterflies, and plants
Sugar-water density experiment — very fun!
A free printable with matching cards for teaching about bogs is at this blog post. The suggested text is not required for using the cards in the PDF, but some source of information would be nice to have on hand.
Information about a free magnets printable is at this blog post. The printable will be found in our free eMembers area.
Free student interactive notebook printable for studying plants on the prairie at this blog post. What plants and animals live on the prairie? Find out in this printable.
Observe and journal about a tree for an outdoors science activity. Visit the same tree a each season of the year to notice what is happening. More information and a free PDF is available at the blog post.
Have you see the dancing dime experiment to demonstrate that warm air takes up more space than cold air? See the post at this link for more information as well as a very short video.
Solar Bead Necklaces are amazing for children but do not tell the secret while inside and working on the project. Let children discover for themselves how the sun causes these beads to reveal their colors. They will be happy to share the information with you! For information please see the blog post at this link.
Watch Me Grow, Rabbit is a nonfiction book for children with facts, information, and photos that show how rabbits grow and live. The free printable at the blog post has a worksheet and answer key to accompany the text.
Science experiments at home using test tubes, nature print paper activities, and breaking open geodes. See the information at this blog post.
Free activity: Traveling Water Experiment at this blog post
Build a solar oven and bake smores (free printable at the post)
STEM with recycled newspapers, old-fashioned fun
Grow crystals over night using tissue paper instead of coal, and a few household ingredients. See information and printable directions which open here.
