COMMON SENSE IN GARDENING 123 



Therefore, if it is to be moved at all, it should be moved 

 as soon as it has died down; otherwise it will receive 

 a check from which it may never recover. 



There are some plants which need to be moved 

 pretty often if they are not to deteriorate, and the 

 reason for this can generally be found in their habit 

 of growth and rooting. Plants which have deep roots 

 can often be left for years undisturbed, and often 

 suffer for a time even from the most careful shifting. 

 On the other hand, plants will increase rapidly with 

 a network of surface-rooting runners or suckers, such 

 as Sidalcea or most Michaelmas Daisies, are apt to 

 exhaust the soil in which they grow, and often need 

 to be moved every two years at least. Again, plants 

 such as Primroses and Polyanthuses, and many other 

 Primulas, which start with a single crown and in a 

 year or two break up into several crowns, are usually 

 the better for frequent division, as the different crowns 

 are really different plants, and crowd each other. A 

 plant like Primula denticulata needs to be divided 

 every year when it grows strongly, otherwise it will 

 soon produce only poor flowers; and this division 

 should be done as soon as possible when it has more 

 than one crown, so that the plant may recover in time 

 to form its flowers for the next year. We have chosen, 

 almost at haphazard, a few instances of the applica- 

 tion of common sense in gardening, with the object 

 of showing that there are obvious reasons for all the 

 diversities of treatment which seem so arbitrary to 

 the beginner. If he tries to understand the reason of 



