Try Fiddler's approach, only once they've stopped running away, recapture them.
You Float in place, rigid, and watch Fidler wander around playing his fiddle. Music? Okay:
>la, la, la, connect the dots. LA La La, Connect The Dots, LA LA LA CONNECT THE DOTS, LALALACONNECTTHEDOTS" You sing with increasing 'enthusiasm' until someone starts throwing rocks at you.
Well, someone has terrible taste, because one single plantbaby climbs up on top of you and roots itself firmly to your head, singing:
"cheep cheep cheep, cheep che cheep!" and dancing in rhythm. It refuses to dislodge when you attempt to put it with the others, too. Plantmomma looks at you with withering scorn and profound disappointment. Been a while since i could roll badly for charisma. it's just as glorious as I remembered.
The answer hits Fiddler square in the face. Metaphorically, of course.
Begin fiddling and make a circle around Plantbaby Fields, then return to the center.
You begin Fiddling and strolling. Several plantbabies seem interested, one even climbing high to look your way, wiggling in apparent satisfaction. The Eye takes a liking to this plan and adds a vocal disharmony to it, causing plantbabies to cry and hisss and disappear. After 'someone' manages to shut the Eye up with a well placed stone in the face, you resume your stroll, collecting plantbabies by the power of song - specifically, this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL6CDFn2i3I ... only with more fiddle. You collect sixteen plantbabies, all in a row, and march them into the clearing, along with five rabbits, two chickens, and, of course, a badger and a snake. "Hey Eye? How many did you get this time?"
> ... One "Goody. How many are left?
> there are fourteen left in the wild, excluding the one attached to my frame. "cheep cheep cheep, cheep che cheep!"...
...
I land near the PlantMother and continue observing what is going on, the plant-beings, and so on. Maybe the behavior of the ones we've already returned will help give ideas for what the ones we haven't are doing to stay hidden.
You watch plantpoppa marshal his troops, and plantbabies line up like little soldiers, still dancing in rhythm and cheeping away, except for the unfortunate period when the Eye is screeching at the world with malevolence and spite (neither emotion of which does the Eye actually feel). Observing them is made easier by the fact that they are aligned in a nice, patterned arc in front of plantbro, who directs them like a conductor at an orchestra. The rhythm changes when Fiddler passes by fiddling, and most of the plantbabies in the group swivel to face him, wherever he is in the field, though some ignore him completely. When he marches into the clearing, his entourage moves into the crowd, and there is some shuffling about while places are made in the arc for the newcomers. the rabbits, chickens badger and snake all take places along the fringe, settling in behind and outside of the arc like good little audience members.
You notice something else unexpected. Know how the plantmomma fusses ovger the plants, cleaning and straightening them? She moves in a similar pattern around three spots where there is a gap in the pattern.
I have no idea what should be buffed to help hunt plant babies. If Dar's having trouble finding them, and they have a scent, smell should be buffed. If Dar's having trouble catching them, dex should be buffed. Otherwise, I dunno. I guess that means an int roll should be made, much as I hate those.
Anyway, yeah, buff whatever then continue hunting
You buff scent, and begin tracking them more carefully. But their scent is all over, and leads in a confusing tangle of trails, turns, overlaps, and backtracks - usually ending up heading back in toward plantcentral. Some of the scents are
slightly different from the others though. "Dexssss is for flipping and turning and not getting hit and hittingsssss. Dar wantses ssspeeed for catchings. Stupid flowers is fast, not nimble."