126 PLANTING. 



where it can be shaded during sunshine ; but on no 

 account should tender plants be shaded during 

 cloudy weather, or covered with an opaque cover- 

 ing during night, unless for the purpese of protect- 

 ing them from cold. Of course the after treatment 

 of every plant in a pot must depend on its nature ; 

 all that it is necessary at present to treat of, is the 

 manner of planting. 



Transplanting plants which have already been 

 grown in pots, is either effected by removing the 

 ball or mass of earth containing the roots entire, or 

 by gently breaking the ball in pieces, and stretch- 

 ing the roots out on every side. When the ball is 

 not broken, the operation is called shifting. Plants 

 are often reared in pots, on account of their tender 

 nature when young, or for the convenience of 

 transporting them to a distance, though they are in- 

 tended ultimately to be planted in the open ground. 

 In almost all cases of this kind, the ball should be 

 broken, and the pit having been prepared with the 

 greatest care, as in common planting, the fibrous 

 roots should be stretched out in it as far as they 

 will go on every side. Hence, a plant which has 

 been grown in a very small pot, when it is to be 

 transplanted into the open garden, may often re- 

 quire a pit three feet or four feet in diameter. 

 There is not, perhaps, an operation in the whole 

 circle of gardening, that affords a higher gratifica- 

 tion to the planter, than transplanting plants from 

 pots when the pits and soil are properly prepared, 

 and the roots carefully stretched out without being- 

 bruised or broken. In consequence of the extra- 

 ordinary sources of nutriment which are thus af- 

 forded to the plant, and of the greatly increased 

 power given to the roots, the shoots which it 



