CHAPTER FOUR 



Times and Seasons 



®3:-^^p HERE are as many theories about proper times for 

 •f \ -i^ planting as there are nurserymen and gardeners. Al- 

 ^^4-'^® most every one has his own pet ideas about the best 

 season for moving this tree or that, based, of course, 

 upon individual experience, but almost every one agrees on the 

 two main seasons of spring and fall as the periods of greatest ac- 

 tivity in transplanting. The purpose in moving plants at these 

 two times is to catch them while they are in a more or less dormant 

 state — in the spring before the sap has started up from the roots, 

 and in the fall after the plant has ceased to grow for the season. 

 It follows that it is desirable to move in the fall all those things 

 which start into life very early in the spring, and at the latter 

 season the more sluggish things which are slower in responding 

 to "the urge of spring." In the first class are such shrubs as 

 honeysuckle, lilac, and spiraea, together with dogwood and for- 

 sythia, whose flower buds for the next spring are all set in the 

 autumn. These plants begin to grow very early in the spring, 

 and if they have established themselves in the fall they will be 

 ready to grow uninterruptedly when spring sunshine sends the 

 sap up from their roots. 



Fall planting of deciduous shrubs and trees may be started as 



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