Sexy Plant Stems and Bulbs (What You Don't Know May Cost Y ou!)
Finding the right spot for a cutting on herbaceous plant is simple: look for a growing tip. Also known as apical meristems (words which you should try dropping around the house twice this week, just to see the look of awe and respect in your family's faces), these tips are responsible for the vigorous upward, primary growth of the plant.
Dealing with woody stems is a bit more difficult, since you must distinguish between the apical meristem and the lateral meristem, which appears on the side of the plant stem and is responsible for outward, secondary growth and bark production.
You'll also need to know where to find a node, or the spot on a stem where a leaf is born, since most cuttings should be taken below a node (and not, as I learned, by cutting right through it). The spot just beneath the node, and before the next one, is known as the internode. (Isn't that nice and technical sounding? Try using it at dinner shortly after mentioning 'apical meristems' and your family will really fall off their seats!) That is where you want to take your cutting.
Certain stems feature modifications that underscore the plant's uncanny ability to adapt and provide its own protection. For instance, rose thorns serve no purpose beyond protecting their exquisite blooms from predators like deer, which flock to an unprotected rose garden like my Hubby and his friends flock to an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Other plants, like ivy and grapevines, have developed tendrils that curl around any available protrusion and allow the plant to climb and spread out in its nearly inexhaustible search for moisture. Even cacti, with their infamous spines, are noted for their thicker stems that hold water and carry out the photosynthesis for which leaves are responsible in other plants.
And then there are bulbs, tubers, rhizomes and corms.
For some reason, most of us think that bulbs are roots. I suppose it's because we see most stems waving in the sun, while bulbs are planted under the ground in that province we ordinarily associate with the naked whiteness of roots and other things best left in the dark.
The true bulbs of lilies, tulips, and hyacinths are, in fact, very short underground stems that contain buds which will eventually form the treasured blooms of these plants. Overlapping leaves forming the exterior of the bulb also store food that nourishes the plant while underground.
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