TRANSPLANTING IN AUTUMN 



date for the removal of winter underwear. Some autumns are 

 peculiarly hard on newly planted stock — ^last year's, for in- 

 stance, when a long drought was followed by an unusually 

 severe winter, while last spring, cold and moist, was admirable 

 for newly planted stock. Sometimes it is the spring which 

 is almost impossible for transplanting purposes, because the 

 ground may stay frozen until mid-April and then the spring 

 comes with a rush, hurrying trees into leaf before gardeners 

 have a chance to do anything, compressing the planting season 

 into about three weeks. 



Transplanting is always a shock to the system, and any 

 plant needs a week of undisturbed peace and quiet before it 

 must "get busy" again. The pitfall of spring planting is that 

 it is often belated, and the young plant finds upon it the duties 

 of leafing-out and of blossoming before the roots have made 

 connections and are able to supply the food. The injury to 

 autumn-planted stock is likely to result from, the few days 

 of unexpected warmth during the winter when demands are 

 made on root-strength which the plant has not; also from 

 "heaving" — that is, when a plant, because of the alternate 

 freezing and thawing, becomes dislodged. This latter danger 

 may be guarded against by mulching, which is essential to 

 successful planting in autumn. In fact I should be inclined 

 to say that, given a careful planting in well-prepared soil, 

 and a good mulch (if the planting be done in the autumn), 

 and the chances of success between spring and autumn plant- 

 ing are about as six to half a dozen. 



The Chief Points to Keep in Mind 



The whole idea in transplanting is that plants be shifted 

 during their resting period — ^when they are "dormant," as it 

 is called. It follows naturally that plants which bloom very 



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