1 28 REVIEW. 



Of course, new roots strike out, and take a horizontal direction, but they are only of secondary importance, 

 and will ever remain disproportionate to the proper support of the tree. In short, pot-grown plants have 

 many disadvantages, without a redeeming quality. 



' The objections to plants grown in the open ground, supposing them to have been properly managed, 

 have no real weight. They can always be removed, at proper seasons for planting, to any distance, without 

 risk of failure from the effects of their removal. Frequent transplanting while in the nursery will have 

 induced the production of numerous healthy roots, ready to commence their important functions the moment 

 favourable opportunities are presented. They will at once gain firm hold of the soil; and support will, if 

 required at first, be quickly dispensed with.' 



PROPER SEASONS FOR PLANTING. 



' With regard to the most suitable season for planting, about which so much has been said and written, 

 and to which so much importance is attached, nothing need be said; so much depends on the state of the 

 weather, the condition of the plants, and various local circumstances, that advice which would in some cases 

 be valuable, would in others only mislead. Something will always remain to be decided by the judgment anil 

 discrimination of the planter. 



' As a general rule, March is the worst month of the year for removing evergreens. Tt is generally 

 accompanied by cold parching winds, the worst possible condition to which newly planted shrubs can be 

 subjected. A hot dry season is bad, but a cold dry one is much worse. But if the plants to be removed 

 have been frequently transplanted, and are well furnished with fibrous roots, the operation may be 

 successfully performed at almost any season of the year. 



'Though a cold dry season, as we have just observed, is the worst possible in which to transplant 

 evergreens under any circumstances, if the plants are coarse-rooted, from not having been previously 

 removed, the difficulties are much augmented, and the chances of success decrease in an equal ratio. 

 It will be impossible to remove such without destroying the greater part of their fibrous roots; 

 and as the vegetative powers of the plant are dormant, others will be but slowly produced. Under such 

 conditions, the leaves will help to destroy rather than accelerate vegetation. Evaporation from the 

 leaves of plants is great under ordinary circumstances, and in very dry weather it is much increased; and 

 when the state of the atmosphere is such that it contributes nothing for absorption, and from the absence 

 of rootlets no moisture can be sent up from the soil, every drop of sap is quickly drawn from the branches, 

 the leaves dry, the bark shrivels, and death ensues before new roots can be produced to contribute a fresh 

 supply. Prom this it will be readily seen, that for evergreens with large thick leaves, which are coarse- 

 rooted when removed, a warm moist season, just before they make their young shoots, or when they are 

 nearly ripe, and while the sap is still in an active state, will be the best season to transplant ; and if the 

 roots are ' puddled ' when planted, it will greatly assist them ; and if their leaves can be kept syringed when 

 the atmosphere is dry for a fortnight or three weeks after planting, by that time fresh roots will have 

 been made, and the plants are safe. 



' The evergreen oak is proverbially difficult to transplant successfully ; more failures are experienced with 

 it than with any other tree, but with good management, it can be effected even under unfavourable 

 circumstances. Some years since, Mr. Ingram, gardener to Her Majesty at Windsor, moved some large 

 specimens in the first week of June, and which had not been previously removed for many years. They 

 were carefully taken up, and the roots well ' puddled ' when planted, and the weather was moderately moist ; 

 but when it was not so, a mau was kept constantly syringing their leaves and stems for about three weeks. 

 The plants succeeded well, and are now fine trees. 



' Under ordinary circumstances, evergreens may be safely removed during the latter part of August, 

 in September and October, or even in April and the early part of May. But under the conditions we 

 have already detailed, they may be transplanted at almost any season. We have succeeded well with many 

 in May and June. Tor deciduous trees and shrubs, it matters little at what period they are transplanted 

 between the time of casting their leaves and of commencing to vegetate in spring. But immediately after 

 the fall of the leaf is the most suitable period.' 



