THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



but only as furnishment and decoration. At 

 favorable moments you will make whatever rear- 

 rangement may seem to you good. A shrub's 

 mere being in a certain place is no final reason 

 that it should stay there; a shrub or a dozen 

 shrubs — next spring or fall you may transplant 

 them. A shrub, or even a tree, may belong where 

 it is this season, and the next and the next; 

 and yet in the fourth year, because of its excessive 

 growth, of the more desired growth of something 

 else, or of some rearrangement of other things, 

 that spot may be no longer the best place for it. 

 Very few shrubs are injured by careful and 

 seasonable, even though repeated, transplant- 

 ing. Many are benefited by one or another 

 effect of the process: by the root pruning they 

 get, by the "division," by the change of soil, by 

 change of exposure or even by backset in 

 growth. Transplanting is part of a garden's 

 good discipline. It is almost as necessary to 

 the best results as pruning — on which grave 

 subject there is no room to speak here. The 

 owner even of an American garden should rule 

 his garden, not be ruled by it. Yet he should 



76 



