In case you are not familiar with this plant, its Mimosa pudica, aka "Shy Plant", "Humble Plant", "Sleeping Grass", "Touch-Me-Not", "Sensitive Plant" and "Modest Princess." Their website actually has videos of this plant being all sensitive and ticklish in case you don't believe their claims. What I love most about this whole Tickle Me deal is that Mark is out to educate children. You can see by the picture of the seed packet that it is designed to appeal to the kiddies. Now, I have no kids, but I'm extremely immature and my level of gardening knowledge is about that of an 8 year old so I'm pretty sure I'm qualified to grow these babies!
Did I mention that Mark is a science teacher? I think that's just awesome that he's trying to teach kids about growing stuff in his classroom and encourage other teachers to do the same. From their website...
"Our mission is simple: We want every child to have a positive experience growing plants. Growing the TickleMe Plant from seeds, will be an adventure children will never forget and neither will you!!"
I split my seeds with GB and then followed Mark's directions to get them started. He suggested soaking them in hot water to make them germinate faster. From the looks of the website he's got his students doing all sorts of crazy experiments with these seeds. Good luck, Mark's students!
Here's one of my little guys today. Stay tuned for more details on Operation Tickle Me!
