830 THE FLORAL WORLD AlsD GARDEN GUIDE. 



able for distinctiveness. Tlie cliief charm of park trees consists iu 

 the striking etiecfc they produce iu masses ; but in the garden it is 

 impossible to plant them iu sufB.cieut numbers to form good masses, 

 and even were this formation possible, they would be too close to 

 the eye to produce the desired eftect. We, in fact, require the 

 gardens to be furnished quite differently from the park and the forest, 

 in precisely the same manner as we require the dining- and drawing- 

 room furniture to differ from tliat of our kitchen and store-room. 

 In suggesting the planting of the garden wit!i trees and shrubs 

 most suitable to it, I am not advising an extravagant outlay of 

 money, for many of the very finest in the respective classes can be 

 purchased at a trifling increase on the cost of the most common. 



It has been considered desirable to direct attention to the subject 

 now, because the current month, and the one immediately succeeding 

 it, form the best period of the whole year for carrying on planting 

 operations. The soil is then iu a capital working condition, and 

 much warmer than it is after it has been subjected to a winter's 

 rains, snows, and frosts. Trees and shrubs planted during the 

 period here mentioned are, therefore, placed under conditions more 

 favouiable to the production of new roots and becoming thoroughly 

 established, than others planted in the spring. Many of the failures 

 which occur are entirely due to planting at the wrong season, and 

 yet it is not often the fact strikes the planter that the failure has 

 been caused by spring planting. This appears to be one of the 

 hardest of all lessons relative to garden management, to learn ; for, 

 notwitii standing its being repeated in some gardens year after year, 

 it most signally fails in teaching the planter where he is at fault. 

 Spring planting cannot, in some cases, be avoided, and where it is 

 carried out with skill, and the trees receive the attention most con- 

 ducive to their becoming established afterwards, they do not suffer 

 materially ; but in small gardens, especially where very little time 

 can be spared for watering in the summer, it should, if possible, be 

 avoided. By planting in autumn, when garden work is slack, 

 spring work, which brooks no delay, is not interfered with, a con- 

 siderable amount of extra labour is avoided, and a chance exists of 

 the work being executed in a better manner, because of other 

 matters not pressing so heavily on the attention of those who have 

 charge of it. 



As I am anxious not to occupy too much space, I shall not say 

 very much in reference to the planting operations. The roots of the 

 shrubs and trees must, during the time they are out of the ground, 

 be carefully protected from the air. As a rule, when they are 

 received, they should be laid iu by the heels in a spare corner, and 

 then drawn out as required for planting. The roots do not suffer 

 so much from exposure iu the autumn as they do in the spring, but 

 it is nevertheless desirable to avoid exposing them unnecessarily. 

 Over-crowding is objectionable, because it necessitates, in the course 

 of a few years, the lifting and re-planting of the whole of the shrubs. 

 It is much better to plant the choicer shrubs at a proper distance 

 apart, and then fill in with a few common things, which can be 

 removed altogether as soon as the others require more space, or to 



