About two years ago we visited the Eden project in Cornwall (UK) where my husband and I at some point spent a good 15 minutes playing with a plant that would react to our touch by closing its leaves! So cute! It was as if the plant was communicating with us!
I recently found out that this specific plant is called a Mimosa Pudica, or ‘Tickle me plant’, and that growing one yourself is apparently super, super-easy!
The seeds will sprout within a couple of days and become ‘ticklish’ in about a month. The kids can see it grow and finally play with it as if it were a pet! The plant even appears to go to sleep at night by closing its leaves.
In the US, you can buy Tickle-me-plant-seeds specifically aimed at children, but it might be a cheaper option to google Mimosa Pudica and check with garden centres in your own country. (In the Netherlands you can buy the seeds of ‘Kruidje-roer-me-niet’ here.)
xxx Esther
P.S. You can see a short video of a Tickle-me-plant here…
Comments (6)
i’ve never heard of these, my kids would love this! thanks for the great idea
I will look for mimosa pudica…. such a funny name!
the modest mimosa!!
Now I know where the name ‘kruidje-roer-me-niet’ comes from! We’re going to try growing them.
I was extremely satisfied with fast germination of the TickleMe Plant seeds .Other similar seeds from other company I go either took a month to sprout or didnt. The
TickleMe Plant seeds sprouted in 3 days!
The TickleMe Plant Greenhouse seemed to help keep them warm and the company was very responsive when I had a few questions. They even have a plant Dr. In fact its listed as a top product of that national gardening associations kidsgardening.com They even included 10 free experiments. I highly recommend buying TickleMe Plant products.
I seem to recall that they can actually get ‘exhausted’ so that they don’t react for a while if you overdo it… just a warning.
Wow, we have that all over the place in Hawaii. It’s a weed we call ‘sleeping grass.’ Kind pokes when you step on it.