WHEN AND HOW TO PLANT. 



The matter of when to plant is often a puzzling 

 When to question to the amateur; and to give one answer 

 Plant which will apply to all species and localities is 



obviously impossible. Spring is commonly con- 

 cidered the best season, for the reason that plants set out at that 

 time have abundant opportunity to become well established in 

 the ground before the following winter. The planting-season 

 may extend from the earliest time at which the ground is free from 

 frost until, perhaps, the first of June. The later period, however, 

 requires the use of plants that have been kept dormant, as it is 

 ordinarily unsafe to move them after they have leaved out to 

 any extent. Their becoming established is a matter of renewing 

 root-growth that has been disturbed by transplanting, and this 

 fact has led the author to the belief that early fall planting 

 may be employed equally advantageously. It has been his 

 experience that root-growth continues after the leaves have 

 performed tlieir functions and have commenced to drop off. 

 Transplanted at this semi-dormant period, the plant becomes 

 sufficiently well established to endure the ensuing winter, and is 

 in a position to take advantage of the earliest spring warmth, and 

 to make vigorous growth the following summer. This fall plant* 

 ing-season lasts (in the vicinity of New York and Boston) from 

 about the first week of September until the ground is frozen. 



When transplanted in the fall, trees and plants 

 Winter of a more tender nature should be protected against 



Protection drying winds and severe cold. This protection 



should usually not be applied until after the ground 

 is frozen to a depth of two or three inches. Individual trees and 

 shrubs may be wrapped with straw, burlap, or evergreen boughs ; 

 and it is well to first strengthen the plant with a strong pole 

 inserted firmly in the ground. Groups of Rhododendrons or 

 deciduous shrubs of questionable hardiness may be protected 



