ower-pots.
Cuttings of tea roses should have two or three joints and be taken from
a stem that has just made a flower. Allow one of the rose leaves to
remain at the top of the cutting. Stick this cutting into the sand and
it will root in about four weeks. Cuttings of Cape jasmine may be rooted
in the same way. Some geraniums, the rose geranium for example, may be
grown from cuttings of the roots.
[Illustration: FIG. 98. REPOTTING]
Bulbs are simply the lower ends of the leaves of a plant wrapped tightly
around one another and inclosing the bud that makes the future
flower-stalk. The hyacinth, the narcissus, and the common garden onion
are examples of bulbous plants. The flat part at the bottom of the bulb
is the stem of the plant reduced to a flat disk, and between each two
adjacent leaves on this flat stem there is a bud, just as above-ground
there is a bud at the base of a leaf. These buds on the stem of the bulb
rarely grow, however, unless forced to do so artificially. The number
of bulbs may be greatly increased by making these buds grow and form
other bulbs. In increasing hyacinths the matured bulbs are dug in the
spring, and the under part of the flat stem is carefully scraped away to
expose the base of the buds. The bulbs are then put in heaps and covered
with sand. In a few weeks each bud has formed a little bulb. The
gardener plants the whole together to grow one season, after which the
little bulbs are separated and grown into full-sized bulbs for sale.
Other bulbs, like the narcissus or the daffodil, form new bulbs that
separate without being scraped.
[Illustration: FIG. 99. A CLEMATIS]
There are some other plants which have underground parts that are
commonly called bulbs but which are not bulbs at all; for example, the
gladiolus and the caladium, or elephant's ear. Their underground parts
are bulblike in shape, but are really solid flattened stems with eyes
like the underground stem of the Irish potato. These parts are called
_corms_. They may be cut into pieces like the potato and each part will
grow.
The dahlia makes a mass of roots that look greatly like sweet potatoes,
but there are no eyes on them as there are on the sweet potato. The only
eyes are on the base of the stem to which they are joined. They may be
sprouted like sweet potatoes and then soft cuttings made of the green
shoots, after which they may be rooted in the greenhouse and later
planted in pots.
There are many perennial pla
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