166 THE GARDENER. [April 



be very dwarf and produce about four blooms each. Another system 

 we have adopted with success — viz., striking four or five cuttings in 

 a small, say 3-inch pot, as soon as growth is completed and it can 

 be seen which shoots are going to bloom. Care must be taken that 

 they do not again start into growth after taking root, until it is seen 

 that the flower-buds are swelling ; and then the growths, if they start 

 before the blooms expand, are better picked off. 



Wm. Bare-net. 

 Norris Green. 



PLANTING SHRUBS. 



The planting of forest trees and shrubs, where such work has to be 

 done, will be continued to a late date this spring ; for while we write, 

 the frost and snow have only just gone, and it will require some days 

 of dry March winds to fit the soil for satisfactory working. The 

 month of April is, however, not by any means the worst period to re- 

 move and plant evergreen shrubs. We have just inspected a great 

 quantity of large Hollies and evergreens, which were transplanted 

 last June, and all have grown successfully. Most evergreens are 

 exotics, and many require the average temperature of the season to 

 rise considerably before their vitality is sufficiently aroused. April is 

 the month for Hollies and for Conifers of all sorts to be moved \ and 

 the time which suits these must, of necessity, not be bad for other 

 evergreens. We, in common with many more, have been obliged to 

 defer planting of all kinds ; and now, when the frost has gone, and 

 on looking over our stores of trees and shrubs, we find them in quite 

 a different condition from the fine, robust, healthy looks which they 

 wore on the 1st of November last. Very many, such as large old trees 

 of Sweet-bay and Arbutus, seem as if a hot blast had passed over 

 them, — many killed, and many more paralysed. IN [any have lost foliage 

 more or less: in fact, to note the various degrees of injury is simply to 

 register the degrees of resistance or hardiness of the various subjects. 

 Now, in the face of the general shock to the vitality of the shrubbery 

 stores — for all are more or less damaged and convalescent — we have 

 been obliged to modify our plans for planting very considerably. 

 We ask ourselves the question, Can we dare to move those Escallo- 

 nias which seem hesitating between life and death 1 can we move those 

 Deodaras whose bare twigs look more like those of the Larch, and are 

 evidently very much enfeebled 1 Even the green Hollies are throwing 

 down their foliage in showers. Would it be judicious to add the 

 additional shock of tearing them up by the roots and replanting 

 them % Laurustinus also, which is a very doubtful plant to remove 



