I've attempted to grow all sorts of weird plants here on my desk for fun, but giant lily pads never crossed my mind until now! With the cool new Lily Pad Kit ($8) you can easily grow your own flowering water lillies in about two weeks. Just fill up the included bowl with water, drop in the lotus seeds, provide a little sunlight and in a couple of weeks, roots and sprouts will start forming and popping out floating lily pads. Unfortunately, the kit doesn't include any frogs, but since they are experts at finding lily pads, you never know if a few might turn up one morning.

I didn't know this, but lily pads can grow as large as two feet wide and can cover an entire shallow pond in only four feet of water. They also have the largest flower of any known plant in North America. So if you really want your lily pads to grow large, you're gonna need a bigger bowl and a bigger cubicle. (via Michael Kiely)