PLANTING. 



2 



9 



PLANTING. 



as in common planting, the fibrous 

 roots should be stretched out in it as 

 far as they will go on every side. 

 Hence, a plant which has been grown 

 in a very small pot, when it is to be 

 transplanted into the open garden 

 may often require a pit three feet or 

 four feet in diameter. There is not 

 perhaps an operation in the whole 

 circle of gardening that affords a 

 higher gratification to the planter, 

 than transplanting plants from pots 

 when the pits and soil are properly 

 prepared, and the roots carefully 

 stretched out without being bruised 

 or broken. In consequence of the 

 extraordinary sources of nutriment 

 which are thus afforded to the plant, 

 and of the greatly increased power 

 given to the roots, the shoots which 

 it makes the first year are extraordi- 

 nary, and evince a degree of vigour 

 which none but a gardener of expe- 

 rience could believe possible. On the 

 other hand, when a plant in a pot is 

 turned out into a pit, however well 

 the soil may be prepared, if the roots 

 are not stretched out, it may remain 

 for many years without growing much 

 faster than it previously did in the 

 pot. This is often the case with the 

 more rare species of the Pine and Fir 

 tribe, and with Magnolias and other 

 plants kept in pots by nurserymen ; 

 and it is further attended by this evil, 

 that the plants are easily blown 

 to one side by the wind. In the 

 case of surface-rooted plants, such as 

 Pines, if they have been some years 

 in the pot, they never send out roots 

 sufficient to keep them upright ; and 

 hence the Pinaster and Stone Pine, 

 which are almost always kept in pots 

 in British nurseries, are generally 

 found leaning to one side in planta- 

 tions in this country. It is necessary, 

 however, to make the distinction be- 

 tween plants newly planted in pots, 

 and those which have been in pots 

 for two or three years ; for the former 



may perhaps have few roots which 

 have reached the sides of the pot, as 

 in the case of China Roses struck 

 and potted early in the season and 

 planted out the same summer, and 

 which, of course, may be planted out 

 without breaking the ball. The 

 same observation will apply to all 

 other plants in pots that have not 

 their fibrous roots somewhat woody ; 

 and also to all hair-rooted plants, such 

 as Heaths, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, 

 Arbutus, and in general to all the 

 Ericaceae, which having at no age 

 large woody roots, may always be 

 transplanted from pots with the balls 

 entire. 



It may here be observed, that large 

 shrubs of almost all the Ericaceae may 

 be transplanted at almost any age with 

 less danger than most other plants, as 

 from the slender and fibrous nature 

 of the great mass of their roots, they 

 are less liable to injury than woody- 

 rooted plants. All that is required 

 is that they should be taken up with 

 a large ball of earth, and that when 

 replanted they should be abundantly 

 supplied with water. 



Hitherto nothing has been said 

 especially applicable to evergreens, 

 whether in the open ground or in 

 pots. These being at every season of 

 the year more or less in a growing 

 state, it is always desirable to trans- 

 plant them with balls ; and it is only 

 young plants of evergreens, such as 

 seedling Hollies, Portugal Laurels, 

 and young cuttings or layers of the 

 common Laurel, Laurustinus, Sweet 

 Bay, Phillyrea, Alaternus, Junipers, 

 &c, which can be sent to any dis-> 

 tance with a certainty of growing 

 without balls. The common Holly, 

 when it is above three or four feet 

 in height, requires to be taken up 

 with a ball, and that ball carefully 

 preserved by being tied up in a mat— 

 or, according to the Dutch practice, 

 put into a basket of wicker-work. 



