DIG THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. [DfC, 



DECEMBER. 



PLANTING DECIDUOUS SHRUBS AND ORNAMENTAL TREES. 



The planting of these may be gone on with while the wea- 

 ther is fiivourablc, that is, when it is neither frosty nor too 

 wet, in either case, tlie planting of them had better be defer- 

 red till February or March. 



PROTECTING TENDER PLANTS. 



Many tender ornamental shrubs and plants, which stand our 

 summers, and ornament our gardens, require protection from 

 our winters. Of these may be enumerated many plants 

 hitherto treated as green-house plants, which the zeal of the 

 cultivator may wish to acclimate, or to render sufficiently hardy 

 to stand our variable climate by inuring them, by progressive 

 degrees, to stand in the open air. The most likely situations 

 for such experiments are those which are sheltered by nature, 

 and where the soil is either naturally or artificially chry. 

 Plants originated from seeds ripened in our green-houses, 

 are to be preferred in the first instance, and gi'cat care taken 

 to protect, by artificial means, those plants in the open air, 

 until they have perfected seeds. Plants originated from such 

 seeds are supposed to be more likely to stand unprotected, 

 and so in proportion is the progeny of each succeeding gene- 

 ration. Those plants which annually die down to the ground 

 are the most likely to be acclimated by this or any other 

 means, and a slight protection of their roots may be considered 

 sufficient. But those plants, which rank as shrubs or trees, 

 are not so easily protected during winter, and should be planted 

 on warm sheltered walls, or in sheltered places in the shrub- 

 bery, where, in either case, they can be partially protected by 

 sticking a few fern-fronds or branches of trees round them, or 

 entirely covered with mats or portable cases during severe 

 frosts. The roots of all tender plants should be particularly 



