Discover the Magic of a Flower Clock Garden

Want a fun and educational project that combines gardening with learning about time? Creating a flower clock garden, where different blooms open throughout the day, is a fantastic way to get kids involved! They’ll learn about plant life cycles, garden care, and even how people told time before clocks. Read our guide and start planning your own blooming timepiece!

Why Do Flowers Have Different Blooming Schedules?

The diverse world of flowers has evolved incredible strategies to attract bees, butterflies, and other vital pollinators. Their colors, scents, and shapes are all part of this attraction. Blooming at various times is another clever adaptation. Some flowers greet the morning sun, while others unfurl their petals at dusk. Some stay open all day long, and others have shorter blooming windows. This variety helps them compete for the attention of pollinators who are active at different hours.

Ready to Grow? Here’s How:

What You’ll Need:

• A sunny spot for gardening – in the ground, a raised bed, or containers
• An assortment of plants known to bloom at different times of the day

Let’s Get Planting:

1). Choose a location for your garden that receives at least six hours of sunlight daily. Your flower clock can thrive directly in the soil, in a raised garden bed, or even in a large pot or several medium-sized containers.

2). Select a variety of plants that will flourish in your garden’s sunlight conditions and bloom at different times. Here are some examples to consider:

• Around 2 a.m.: convolvulus
• Around 3 a.m.: goatsbeard
• Around 4 a.m.: spiderwort, flax
• Around 5 a.m.: chicory
• Around 6 a.m.: morning glory, daylily
• Around 7 a.m.: African marigold
• Around 8 a.m.: fringed pinks
• Around 9 a.m.: marigold, tulip, gazania
• Around 10 a.m.: California poppy
• Around 11 a.m.: sweet pea
• Around 12 noon: goatsbeard, wild daisy
• Around 4 p.m.: four-o’clock
• Around 5 p.m.: evening primrose
• Around 6 p.m.: moonflower
• Around 7 p.m.: sweet white nicotiana
• Around 8 p.m.: night-scented stock
• Around 9 p.m.: sweet rocket

3). Plan your planting layout. Consider arranging your time-specific flowers in a circular pattern. As the day progresses, different sections of your garden will come into bloom, creating a living clock. If planting for every hour seems like a lot, you can select just a few key blooming times and enhance your garden with a sundial. Sundials are fascinating tools that use shadows to tell time. You can buy one or even try building your own!

4). Plant your garden and enjoy the daily display! Use your flower clock as a teaching tool to show how people historically observed nature’s patterns for practical purposes, offering kids a glimpse into a pre-technology world.

This guide is inspired by the resources and educational materials provided by KidsGardening.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting garden-based learning.