CHAPTER V 



TRANSPLANTING. 



THERE is no operation connected with the cultivation of trees and shrubs 

 upon whose proper performance more depends than transplanting. To 

 its successful accomplishment not only the health, the proper placing, but 

 the very presence of a plant in a garden are due. It may be said, indeed, 

 that it is only the art of transplanting that makes a garden possible. In 

 itself, however, it is an evil, although so necessary a one. With few 

 exceptions, a tree that is rightly placed and in proper soil is better left 

 undisturbed at the root. 



To understand the importance of transplanting it is well to consider 

 the typical root-system of a plant. If a tree old enough to have formed 

 a woody stem be carefully taken out of the ground and examined, it 

 will be found to have a root-system somewhat as follows : Proceeding 

 directly from the stem there will be three, four, or more radiating main 

 roots similar to the stem in character; these are, of course, developed 

 from the first roots emitted by the seedling and have become woody with 

 age. Issuing from them are other ramifications, becoming smaller at each 

 subdivision, till at last they cease to be woody and are invested merely by 

 hair-like organs. It is important to remember that the nutrition of the 

 plant is entirely dependent on these hair-like roots. All the other portions 

 serve merely as conduits from them to the stem, and as supports and 

 holdfasts for the plant. In transplanting it will thus be seen how 

 important it is that as many as possible of the finest rootlets should be 

 preserved. A plant bears transplanting well or badly according to its 

 power of renewing these rootlets quickly, or to its capability of existing 

 with little loss of vitality until they are renewed. The finer and less 

 woody portions of the root-system send out these fine fibres more freely 

 and quickly than the older parts do, which is why young plants, even tiny 

 seedlings, are transplanted with less risk than old ones. 



Plants like rhododendrons and others of the heath family are easily 

 transplanted because they produce an enormous quantity of fibrous roots 

 close to the stem, enabling a much larger proportion of working roots to 



