238 AROUND THE YEAR IN THE GARDEN 



The manure should be worked well down below the 

 surface; a couple of good forkfuls and two or three hand- 

 fuls of a mixture of bone, acid phosphate and potash to 

 each shrub will not be too much. The sooner the ground 

 can be got ready the better. An interval between its prep- 

 aration and the actual planting gives it a chance to settle, 

 and the various fertilizers used will be in more available 

 form for the newly set plants to appropriate. 



Pack the Soil Firmly about the Roots 



From the nursery, properly grown plants will be received 

 with a mass of fibrous roots carefully wrapped in burlap to 

 keep them moist and in good growing condition. If the 

 packing is dry when they arrive they should be placed, 

 packing and all, in a tub, and water applied slowly until 

 no more will be absorbed. Put in only a little water at a 

 time; do not soak the whole mass. It is advisable to plant 

 as soon as possible after they are received; but if for any 

 reason they must be held for a few days keep under cover 

 and out of the wind. Or if planting must be delayed for a 

 week or so cut the bundles open, take out the individual 

 plants and heel them in in a trench. 



Firm planting is of the greatest importance, because 

 even if a favorable fall is encountered the plants will not 

 be very firmly established by winter, and damage from 

 strong winds or from the heaving of the soil is pretty sure 

 to result unless the earth has been packed round the roots 

 solidly enough so that there is no "give" to the plants. 



In planting do not expose the roots even for a few minutes 

 to wind and sun. The most convenient method is to carry 

 the plants in a large, shallow basket, keeping the roots 

 covered with moist burlap. Any broken or bruised roots 

 should be cut back to clean, hard wood. Deciduous trees 

 and shrubs which flower after midsummer should be well 

 cut back after planting. The early flowering sorts have 

 already formed their buds, and pruning means fewer flowers 

 the first spring; but if many of the roots have been removed, 



