Tuesday, January 24, 2012

How to build enthusiasm for plants with allergy prone children?

We will be studying botany this summer as a family. I am hoping to really inspire an interest in the kids for both indoor and outdoor enjoyment of plants. The trick is they have terrible pollen allergies. Hard to enjoy something that can make you feel so stuffed up and miserable. LOL. My guess is we will need to skip flowers.



Any suggestions on low-pollen plants that kids would really get a kick out of? Do any of you have low-pollen suggestions for plants we can use in doing a landscaping project together? Grass pollen is a particular problem. Are there good alternatives to grass that we can use to bring down allergen symptoms?



Any of you garden enthusiasts plagued with allergies? How do you cope?



We live in the American Mid-South - mild winters, very wet springs, and long hot summers with little rainfall.

How to build enthusiasm for plants with allergy prone children?
I like answer #1 for a start, but you may want to find something "fun" for kids to kick it off, like venus-fly-traps or the like.



Not the best plants, for sure, but still it's active and immediate, something to grab attention.



Best of luck!
Reply:Get a few fish tanks. In different tanks you can create different environments. Put a 5-10cm layer of gravel on the bottom, plant up with cacti and succulents. In another you could half fill with water and grow submerged water plants eg elodea species, floating plants eg azolla carolina. Pet shops sell a good range (normally used for aquariums). Another suggestion would be to put 15-20cms of potting compost plus charcoal and plant up with low growing annuals eg ageratum, lobelia etc. Keeping the lid on should contain the pollen


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