CHAPTER II. 



PLANTING. 



Planting, or rather transplanting, which is a 

 much more correct and definite term, is a pro- 

 cess in horticulture regarded by many as at- 

 tended with no small degree of difficulty, more 

 especially when the subjects to be operated upon 

 are of large size and of considerable age, we be- 

 lieve because the causes of success or failure are 

 by them little understood. Others, and by far 

 too great a number, stop not to consider causes 

 or effects, but treat the matter as a mere me- 

 chanical operation, and consider only the most 

 expeditious and least troublesome mode of tear- 

 ing the plant from the ground, and sticking it 

 in another situation. That want of success 

 should follow such views is to be expected. 



The earlier writers on this subject have for 

 the most part confined their remarks to prac- 

 tice ; more recent ones have directed their atten- 

 tion to the theory. Amongst these, the late Mr 

 George Lindley considered the cause of success, 

 in transplanting, to depend upon two circum- 

 stances — namely, the preservation of the spon- 

 gioles of the roots, and the prevention of exces- 

 sive evaporation. These views are also enter- 

 tained by the most successful planters of the 

 present day. The rationale of transplanting is 

 founded on a general law in nature, by which 

 plants are enabled to renew, within a certain 

 time, those parts which may have been lost or 

 injured during the process of removal, and their 

 requiring a season of repose annually. Now, to 

 aid them in the accomplishment of the first, is 

 to lessen the causes of those losses and derange- 

 ments, by careful lifting, transplanting, and plac- 

 ing them in circumstances the most favourable 

 for their condition ; the next important point is 

 to choose that season when the plant, according 

 to its kind, is either closing its state of excite- 

 ment, in a state of repose, or just before excite- 

 ment commences for another season. This 

 extends the period of transplanting over a con- 

 siderable space of time. The question, however, 

 is, even when reduced to these limits, whether 

 the first, second, or third states is the most 

 proper for the operation? Each has had its 

 advocates ; and it is possible that, under certain 

 circumstances, plants may be successfully re- 

 moved during any of these stages. 



Every tree, even of the same species, will not 

 admit of being transplanted with equal success 

 at the same time. It will, therefore, depend 



much upon the discrimination of the operator, 

 and his judgment will no doubt be regulated by 

 the state of the roots. It will afterwards be seen 

 that the majority of opinions are in favour of 

 early autumn planting ; but this has reference 

 to the state of the plant as much as to the state 

 of the season. The autumnal state — that is, the 

 commencement of the season of repose — begins 

 in some plants, even of the same species, sooner 

 than in others. Small plants may always be re- 

 moved with less chance of failure than large 

 ones, because their fibres and spongioles are less 

 liable to injury during the operation, and hence 

 their growth suffers less interruption. Large 

 plants, such as trees and shrubs, can never be 

 removed without a certain amount of injury 

 being done to their roots, and that at the points 

 — the very parts of most importance to them, 

 because there the spongioles are situated ; and 

 these, if once destroyed, must be reproduced 

 before the plant can derive nourishment for its 

 future support. Now plants such as trees and 

 shrubs, in the open air, require that support 

 most early in spring, before the state of folia- 

 tion takes place : it follows, therefore, that 

 plants removed during autumn must have these 

 organs soonest produced ; those during winter, 

 next in rotation ; and those late in spring, spar- 

 ingly, imperfectly, if at all ; and hence, in the 

 latter case, the trees are left without support at 

 the very time they require it most. Plants re- 

 quire nourishment, although in a nmch less de- 

 gree, even when they are in what is called a 

 state of repose, which is that season when de- 

 ciduous trees are without their leaves. " When 

 plants are in an active state of growth, a con- 

 stant perspiration is taking place from their 

 leaves, which is supplied by the absorption of 

 the moisture in the soil by the spongioles of the 

 roots ; and when this supply through the roots 

 is cut off by the destruction of the spongioles, 

 the leaves wither, the plant dies, or becomes 

 greatly injured; but there is a period in the 

 growth of every plant in which the leaves either 

 drop off, as in deciduous plants, or cease to be 

 in a state of activity, as in evergreens ; and it is 

 only in this state that the operation of trans- 

 planting can be successfully undertaken with 

 large plants. Even when trees are without 

 leaves, perspiration is going on to a certain ex- 

 tent through the bark, and absorption to supply 



