Food, medicine, clothing--much of what people encounter every day comes from plants or plant products. However, plants often do not get as much attention in the K-12 curriculum as they deserve. Because of the essential role plants play in peoples lives, it is important to include standards-based plant units in the elementary science curriculum. One creative way to give students direct experience with living plants is by using theme-based live plant displays. As part of a University of Wisconsin--La Crosse undergraduate research grant, the authors--an education student and two mentors--developed five such plant displays organized around core botany principles and science learning standards and tested them in three local elementary schools. To maximize their use and provide accessibility to students and teachers in each school buildingwide, the displays were set up in each school's media center. The displays ran for 10 weeks in each school from February through April 2003. Every two weeks, the authors changed the displays to highlight a different botany-related theme. These displays are described in this article.