Walking along in your garden, you've probably already noticed the difference in plant stems. Most new gardeners, who favor annual and perennial plants, are familiar with the herbaceous stems of these plants: they are soft, green, and die back in the winter, which is why we whine as soon as the snow falls that there's nothing pretty to look at outside. Some of us may have planted a shrub or two and, if you're lucky enough to live in a suburb where they did not decimate every tree to make way for cookie-cutter houses (like mine), you may also be familiar with the other type known as woody stems.
The difference between these two types of stems goes deeper than mere appearance. While both are made up of phloem cells (which conduct food) and xylem cells (which conduct water), they also differ in ways that are of great interest to every gardener: how you take cuttings.
And that, my friend, is the true reason why you want to know about stems.
Now, don't get me wrong: stems are not just a means to an end. They exist for more reasons than waiting around for you to go snipping at them, turning your three prize geraniums into two dozen plants for your family and friends. Stems have an important role in plant growth, and in delivering nutrients throughout the plant.
They are, essentially, the plants vascular structure and when damaged - by haphazardly wielding your scissors, for instance, or letting your spouse and kids romp through the garden without supervision - they don't always recover quickly enough to continue supporting the plant. So if you really want to impress your family at the dinner table, you'll brush up on the real scoop about Plant Anatomy. But for our purposes, we need know only one thing:
Stem Cuttings = Free Plants
To take a cutting properly, you must know more than what type of stem your plant has. You must also know the proper cutting location. Many a new gardener (myself included) has gone about snipping huge chunks off of their treasured plants, plopping them in a potting medium, and waiting for weeks on end for roots to develop only to find out they lopped off a part that will never successfully root.
