Egglings Plant Kits for Black Thumbs

I bought some of these Egglings for Jonah from Giant Robot as an Easter present since he’s such a nature fanatic. He’d been pestering me to plant some flowers and herbs in the backyard but since I have the blackest of black thumbs, I didn’t feel like adding herbicide to my bad karma list. I’m probably the only person who can mess up a Chia Pet and make it sprout only mold.

These little Egglings are perfect for kids and horticulturally-challenged folks like me. It’s a total no-brainer. The white egglings are made of white, porous ceramic and look identical to a jumbo egg. But you crack the top gently with a spoon and inside there’s a peat-fortified mixture inside the eggs all ready to go. All you do is add water and set them out in a sunny place to grow. You don’t have to whip out the gardening gloves or mess around with potting soil. Minimal fuss and muss.

These handmade egglings are extremely popular in Japan and they come with a terra cotta tray and an extra seed pack to insure success. Ten egglings are available: three herbs (basil, mint and thyme), three flowers (chrysanthemum, phlox, petunia), and four special edition varieties (lavender, cactus, red pepper, and wild strawberry).

The Nyokki eggs (Japanese word for grow) with the little legs grow rye grass and you can trim it and style it any way you like.

These little plants are just so cheery and so cute and I’ve perched them all on my windowsill in the kitchen and water them daily. The instructions do warn about the dangers of overwatering since they can cause the roots to rot. So sadly, it is possible for me to kill these plants as well. I’ve been restraining myself from drowning them since it’s so much fun to water them.

But I think I’ve just discovered the perfect generic birthday/teacher/hostess gift and plan to stock up and stash them in my closet to have in a pinch. They come adorably packaged of course, since they’re a Japanese product. But overall, this is the rare fusion of form meeting function in equal measure.

LINKS: GiantRobot and Eggling.com