71 



EVEEGEEEN SHEUBS EOR TOWN GAEDENS. 



jHIS is tlie best time iu the whole year, save and except 

 September and October, to plant hardy evergreen shrubs, 

 as they are just on the move, and as soon as they begin 

 to grow will make new roots vigorousl}^ and be greatly 

 aided by the increased warmth of the earth and the 

 frequent showers of rain, so as to get tolerably well established 

 before there is any likelihood of injurj^ fi-om draught. The month 

 of September, or early part of October, is the next best time, as the 

 trees have then finished their growth, and will make fresh roots 

 before winter, and thus get hokl of their new stations without diffi- 

 culty. Indeed, any time of year is prei'erable to the depth of winter, 

 and the man}^ losses that occur among newly-planted evergreens in 

 suburban gardens may be generally ascribed to winter planting, for 

 the earth is then cold, the trees are quite at rest, and the small 

 injuries they receive in taking up at the nurseries and in conveyance 

 to their destination, added, perhaps, to a touch of frost at their roots, 

 render it necessary that they should be set growing immediately, in 

 order to recover them from these shocks — a thing utterly imprac- 

 ticable with plants in the open ground. But when the planting is 

 deferred to March and April, or even so late as May, the natural 

 activity of the sap in the trees recovers them immediately from all 

 small injuries, and instead of the wounded roots rotting in the cold 

 wet soil, as in winter, they heal very quickly, throw out fresh fibres, 

 and take to their new positions immediately. Of course, in the 

 event of a very dry spring, it will be advisable to supply newly- 

 planted shrubs with water at the root and overhead. But it mnst 

 be a very long and severe drought to render much watering at the 

 root necessary, for it is seldom the soil gets dry far below the surface 

 at the time when trees are making their growth, and when their 

 growth is completed, drought is not of much consequence. To 

 guard against the probable eftects of a dry season, and to give the 

 trees a good start, it is well to have all the stations on which ever- 

 greens .are to be planted liberally manured and deeply stirred, and 

 when the trees are planted, and firmly trodden up, a layer of three 

 or four inches depth of half-rotten dung on the soil over their roots 

 will greatly assist then, and render watering at the root quite un- 

 necessary. We must caution beginners, how^ever, not to apply 

 manure where any kind of coniferous trees or American shrubs are 

 to be planted. Americans, it is well known, require good peat, and 

 it is simply murdering them to plant them in any other soil, unless 

 it be a good mixture of such materials as decayed cocoa-nut fibre 

 and leaf-mould, in which some of them will grow tolerably well. As 

 for coniferous trees, it is equally a folly to plant specimens of any 

 value iu poor exhausted garden-mould, and if there is any intention 

 of rendering these really a credit to the place, it will be well to 

 make the stations for them with three feet depth of stitf turfy loam. 

 The best manure for conifers is dried or rotted turf and leaf-mould; 

 when they are planted on poor sandy and chalky soik, a mulch of 



