Garden Plants and How They Grow (rev, 1984)

[Music] almost everywhere you look you can see plants growing they make our world a more colorful place to live in plants growing in fields and woods plants growing on a farm or in a garden perhaps in your own yard where you can watch them grow and change we grow some plants because we enjoy their beautiful flowers many different kinds of flowers and many different shapes and colors [Music] and we grow other garden plants because we can use them for food green plants are able to make food and this food is stored in various parts of the plant lettuce and other plants store food in their leaves and we use these leaves for food some plants store food in their roots and the roots are good to [Music] eat other garden plants store a lot of food in their fruit right now this fruit is small and green but in a few weeks it changes into a juicy red tomato the fruit of the tomato plant and sometimes a lot of food is stored in the seeds of a plant inside this pod are tender green peas the seeds of the pea plant a bean plant also has seed [Music] pods when we eat string beans we're eating the whole pod and not just the seeds [Music] inside there are many kinds of seeds but they're all alike in one way a seed can be used to grow a new plant if you cut open one of these bean seeds you'll find the beginning of a new plant [Music] inside there's a tiny Leaf stem and root there's also food stored in the seed when the seeds sprout their new Roots begin to grow down into the soil we're speeding up the action in the camera so we can see several days of growth in a few [Music] seconds the new plants are using up the food that's stored in the seeds by the time the first green leaves appear most of this stored food has been used up but now the new plants are beginning to make their own [Music] food in order to make food green plants need energy and they get that energy from sunlight but they also need other things for making food the roots of a plant take in water and minerals from the soil the water and minerals are carried upward from the roots and through the stem if you cut a stem in half you can see the tubes that carry water and minerals through the stem and into the leaves and in a leaf you can see the outlines of the the tubes they're called the veins of the leaf a leaf also has small openings or pores that can take in air plants use air along with water and minerals to make their own food this food can be used by the plants themselves it supplies The energy they need for growing and we use many garden plants as food for ourselves but the plants in a garden may also become food for insects and other [Music] animals sometimes these insects can seriously damage a plant that's why some birds are welcome in a garden many birds feed on the insects that can harm a plant there are many other insect eaters like frogs and toads ladybird beetles or ladybugs and garden spiders earthworms help plants in another way they dig tunnels in the soil that keeps the soil loose and makes it easier for plant roots to grow and absorb water and minerals and of course a gardener also works to help the plants grow the work begins even before the garden is planted first the soil is broken up and Dead Leaves and various decaying materials can be mixed in that helps to add minerals to the soil and plants need minerals for making food that's one way that all plants are alike but each kind of plant is also different in certain ways some plants can be easily damaged by Frost during the early spring these plants can be started from seeds planted indoors later when the weather is warmer they can be taken outdoors and planted in the [Music] garden of course some kinds of seeds can be planted right in the ground as soon as the weather is warm enough [Music] but sometimes you can grow a new plant without using seeds at all you can grow a potato plant by cutting up a potato and planting the pieces potatoes are an underground part of a plant stem and you can grow other plants like tulips by planting bulbs a bulb is another kind of underground stem most bulbs are planted in autumn but they don't start to grow until after autumn and winter are [Music] over by early spring the new tulip plant has grown and developed its beautiful [Music] flowers and soon other plants are also growing some plants blossom in the spring others later in the year [Music] a lily plant blooms in late spring or early summer we can enjoy the flowers for several days and then another change Begins the flower starts to wilt and before long the outer parts fall off leaving a long thin stalk part of the flower is changing into the fr fruit of the lily plant as the weeks go by the fruit grows larger and larger the fruit is the part that holds the seeds of the plant and when the fruit is full grown you can open it and see the seeds inside of course we grow lies for their beauty we don't eat their fruit but other kinds of flowering plants produce fruit that we do use for food part of this flower is changing into a squash the fruit of the squash [Music] plant and so as the weeks go by the garden changes each kind of plant developing at its own time and in its own way the plants we grow for food [Music] and the plants we grow for the beauty of their [Music] flowers there's always something new to see in a garden that's why it's a good place to watch nature at work in the life and growth of garden plants n [Music]