The Part Transplanting Plays in Garden Making 
THE CORRECT METHODS OF tTAKING UP TREES AND SHRUBBERY—THE BEST TIME TO MOVE THE 
DIFFERENT VARIETIES—ROOT PRUNING AND ITS RESULTS—SOME DIFFICULT VARIETIES TO HANDLE 
by Grace Tabor 
N OTHING in this world is more 
fixed in habit than trees or 
plants of whatsoever kind they may 
be. '‘Rooted to the spot” they cer¬ 
tainly are, and uprooting them is a 
process which cannot fail to be very 
disconcerting to them, however care¬ 
fully it is carried out. As planters we 
are. as a rule, curiously obtuse, how¬ 
ever, for we give almost no consid¬ 
eration to this phase of transplanting. 
Rarely does one feel uncertain how 
to unplant a specimen, however doubt¬ 
ful he may be of his ability to restore 
it properly to the earth. \ et the suc¬ 
cess of the entire process of trans¬ 
planting depends almost as much upon 
this first half of the work as it does 
upon the second half, so much more 
carefully considered. 
Perennials and shrubs of almost any 
age may be lifted and moved from 
one spot to another without much 
reason to apprehend failure, but trees, of course, are another 
matter. Some species will hardly bear transplanting at all. while 
all kinds are risky handling unless 
they are small and have been origi¬ 
nally nursery grown. These are 
sold as large as fifteen feet in 
height, with a trunk diameter of 
from three to four inches; and a 
nursery - grown tree of this size 
may be moved from its position, 
if this is not satisfactory, without 
much risk of injuring it. But above 
this size I would not advise trans¬ 
planting, if more than one year 
planted. And certainly nothing 
smaller than half this size should 
be moved if it is a seedling or nat¬ 
ural growth that is occupying its 
original position. 
Trees grow at their roots very 
much as they grow at their tops, 
and respond to pruning below 
ground with just the same results, 
practically, as they follow branch 
pruning above—that is, the root 
system grows thick and dense and 
compact when the root tips are 
frequently shortened, either by ac¬ 
tual pruning or by transplanting— 
which has the same effect by break¬ 
ing off enough of the small root 
tips to induce much branching of 
root further up towards the tree 
bole — just as the branch system 
grows dense when the ends of the 
branches are cut back, or the tree 
is headed in by having its leading 
branch shortened. ‘‘Root pruning” is 
accomplished not by actually cutting 
off the roots, but by plowing about the 
tree, near enough to it and deep enough 
into the ground to reach the roots 
which it is desired to nip. 
The dense balls of root network that 
result from such care naturally offer 
very little resistance to lifting the tree 
from the ground within a year, or per¬ 
haps even two years, from the time of 
its last planting. But by the end of this 
time the roots have progressed consid¬ 
erably in their natural way of growth 
and have extended out and into the soil 
to begin the anchoring of the tree, 
which is a part of their function when 
it has grown large and woody. Beeches,, 
for instance — the beech is a notoriously 
“hard planter”- — do not actually begin 
to send out new roots for some time 
after they have been moved, but when 
they finally get a start and begin to grow, their first efforts are 
directed to penetrating the ground just as far as possible, out¬ 
ward and downward. When a beech 
has been moved, therefore, and has 
made a start into actual growth 
above, beware of attempting to 
move it again. Its long roots put 
forth from the compact mass which 
it was induced to grow only by 
most careful contriving and care 
will make successful transplanting 
almost, if not quite, impossible, be¬ 
cause many of them will suffer 
such injury that the tree cannot re¬ 
pair them. 
Trees that have never been trans¬ 
planted or root pruned develop 
their root systems according to 
natural habit and location, but the 
latter is never quite so important a 
factor as the former. Nevertheless 
it counts. Certain kinds of trees 
send straight down, directly beneath 
the trunk, one very long and very 
strong root, called a tap root, which 
is as large around, perhaps, as the 
tree trunk itself, and which reaches 
deep into the earth. Its integrity 
seems particularly vital, for injury 
to its tip will almost certainly cause 
the tree’s death, in many species, 
and its great length and woody 
character make it particularly sus¬ 
ceptible to injury if the tree is 
taken up. Trees with roots of this 
character are acknowledged to be 
Arrange the root stocks and fibres as nearly as pos¬ 
sible in the position they would occupy in growing 
It is better to use tree-moving machinery and skilled labor 
with large specimens in order to avoid all risks 
(370) 
