Grow A Money Plant in Your Landscaping for Kids

Photo by Artisaniaflorae

Money Plant (Lunaria) is also called Honesty or Moonwort and earns its keep in the garden as both a wildlife-attracting plant and as a kid-pleaser. Honesty has different varieties but usually shows up as a biennial. In any case…the fascinating result is the same.

Photo by Kurt Steuber

Honesty’s soft-scented flowers attract butterflies and long-tongued bees. It does fine in sunny places, but really thrives in a semi-shady area of the yard where it grows 2-3 feet tall. When started from seed, Honesty shows up as a cluster of leaves in a rosette-type pattern. The next spring, however, the plant sends up flower stalks that eventually go to seed. So, if you’d like some pods this year, purchase previously started plants.

Photo by Daveeza

After Lunaria blooms its purple or white flowers in the summer, it produces some of the most magical seed pods. The pods are shaped like coins and shine like silver dollars or the moon. They’re popular in dried flower arrangements.

Harvesting the fascinating pods keeps them around so that kids can play and create with them. With a little guidance, kids can easily gather and dry them. When the seed pods begin to turn brown you cut the stems off of the plant. Most people remove the leaves (not the seed pods) along the entire stems. Then just hang them upside down in a dry, cool area for about four weeks. The pods at this point will seem unimpressive. It’s only when the brown outside of the pod is rubbed off that the magic appears underneath – in the form of a papery, silver moon.

Don’t forget to leave a few stalks on the plant so kids can enjoy the rustling sound of the aging seed pods when fall winds blow by.