CHAPTER XL 



PLANTS DIFFICULT TO TRANSPLANT AND THOSE 



ADAPTED FOR TRANSPLANTING AT SPECIFIC 



SEASONS OF THE YEAR 



THE fact is well appreciated that of all our great range of material 

 used in landscape plantings there are a certain number of these species 

 and varieties which are better adapted to being transplanted at some 

 specific season, either during the spring or during the fall. It is gener- 

 ally safe to assume that plants such as the poplars, willows, and the rose 

 of Sharon, the wood of which is late in ripening, should preferably be 

 transplanted in the spring. If these types are transplanted in the fall, 

 they are, during a normal severe winter, subjected to a considerable 

 winter-killing, and must be severely cut back in the early spring; 

 whereas, if planted in the spring they almost invariably continue co 

 grow and require little or no cutting back. 



The group of perennials which should not be transplanted in the 

 spring consists mostly of those plants which begin their growth at 

 the first sign of spring, and before the ground is really in fit condi- 

 tion to "work." These plants, by the time the ground is warm and 

 dry enough to permit transplanting in friable soil, have developed 

 so much growth of roots or of both roots and top, that unless they can 

 be immediately moved without any period of delay from their existing 

 location to a new location they should by all means be transplanted 

 during the fall. If such plants are transplanted in the spring the usual 

 result is a check to growth and exceptionally weak development of 

 flowers and of foliage during that season. The fall transplanting of 

 perennials ought to be done, especially with these early spring-flowering 

 types, during September rather than during the latter part of October 

 and November, when the ground is cold and growth is completely 

 stopped. Transplanting earlier in the fall enables the plants to start 

 some root growth and thus to establish themselves to better withstand 

 the winter conditions, especially in the soils containing more or less 

 clay. Especially should the peony, for any degree of success, be trans- 



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