CHAPTER II 

 PLANTING AND SEEDING SEASONS 



General Considerations. Comparative data based on the best 

 reliable sources of information relative to planting seasons and lawn- 

 seeding seasons are so interesting and so valuable, as a basis of es- 

 tablishing definite relationships among varying sections of the United 

 States, that the writer has been prompted to attempt a diagrammatic 

 and a tabulated analysis of this important question (See Plate III). 



Considered from the standpoint of a plant the act of transplanting 

 is a violent one and consists of stopping at once a large part of its vital 

 activities, generally causing the loss of a considerable part of its root 

 system. Therefore, transplanting should be accompanied by pre- 

 cautions to prevent too great loss of moisture by transpiration, and by 

 measures to assist the plant in starting growth at the earliest possible 

 date. Seeding differs from transplanting in that a seed is a ripened 

 embryo which is a minute but complete dormant plant. As the 

 process of germination includes the making of a vital connection be- 

 tween the young plant and the soil sufficient to enable the plant 

 to produce green tissue and support itself, seedage must also be sur- 

 rounded by precautions to insure proper conditions for germination. 

 One of the most important factors in transplanting or seeding is the 

 selection of the correct season, because upon the successful start of the 

 operation depends the whole future of the plant. Plants grown in pots, 

 or so root pruned that nearly all their roots may be moved with them, 

 are, of course, in condition to be moved at all sorts of odd seasons, but 

 this latter is the work of experts or trained gardeners and is not to be 

 recommended to amateurs on account of the technical knowledge and 

 skill required both during the planting operation and in the way of 

 proper after-care and maintenance. This discussion is confined to 

 transplanting dormant plants and to seeding of lawns, under the fol- 

 lowing headings : 



(a) Deciduous Trees, Shrubs, and Vines 



(b) Evergreen Plants Coniferous and Broad-leaved) 



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