Spring Flowers

Jade, Leah, and their little sister, Izzy, joined their mother in the backyard one spring day. "Wow, look at all the flowers!" Jade said, walking over to her mother's garden. "I love the hyacinths. I think they're my favorite."

"Not mine. I like those yellow ones," said Izzy, pointing to the daffodils.

Leah shook her head. "The tulips are the best," she said. "They come in lots of colors--they don't just stick to one!"

Jade looked around at the garden. "There are lots more flowers than there were last year. Did you plant more this year, Mom?"

Mom shook her head. "No," she said, "but over the winter, they multiplied."

"Muli . . . mulipied?" asked Izzy. "What's mulipied?"

"Not mulipied . . . mul-ti-plied," said Jade. "That means there are more of them. That's because the bulbs in the ground produced more bulbs, so now there are more flowers for you to see. Right, Mom?"

"Right," said Mom. She bent over and removed a few dead leaves from the base of a daffodil. "You know, these spr