84 
House & Garden 
R iddle Fitments are equally adapted to 
^old and new homes. Many a home is 
being modernized in respect to the light¬ 
ing by replacing the outdated fixtures by new 
Riddle Fitments. Those here shown are ad¬ 
mirably suited to the living room. The entire 
range of styles offers interesting suggestions 
for all major rooms, the Estofado Decoration 
harmonizing perfectly with practically any 
color scheme. Booklet illustrated in full 
colors, and name of nearest dealer, will be 
sent on request. 
The Edward N. Riddle Company 
273 Riddle Building, Toledo, Ohio 
Table lamp shown below. No. 649, 24 inches 
high, with Riddle Vcllumesqtie shade, $37.50 
THE MARVELS of 
MID-SUMMER PLANTING 
{Continued from page 82) 
neither pruned nor stripped of its leaves. 
There is a happier method which has 
been found very satisfactory. The tree 
is well mulched and constantly watered. 
The mulch must be of straw or of some 
non-heating material spread over the 
entire root area to the depth of five 
or six inches. It must never be of 
manure which is too heating. Abun¬ 
dant watering is absolutely necessary. 
The hose should be running constantly 
and moved from tree to tree at inter¬ 
vals—a hose divided between a half 
dozen trees or so. This is especially 
necessary in soft sandy soils. In clay 
soil care in watering should be taken 
and sufficient drainage should be pro¬ 
vided so that the tree is not left stand¬ 
ing in water and the roots allowed to 
decay. The same principle of deep 
watering applies to trees as well as to 
perennials. If possible it is well too 
punch holes with crowbars to the 
depth of 2' or more over the root area 
of the tree and to allow the hose to 
run and to fill these holes. In this 
way we are assured that the water 
will go down where the roots are. 
If only the surface is moistened the 
roots will come up and then when we 
think the period of watering has been 
of sufficient duration the trees will 
die from thirst. 
A distinction should be made be¬ 
tween planting done during July and 
August and planting done in June. 
June planting should be avoided be¬ 
cause the soft growth then on the 
tree will almost surely wilt and pre¬ 
sent a sorry appearance. 
PLANTING TREES IN LATE SUMMER 
July and August planting has ad¬ 
vantages over fall planting. The tree 
has time to recover from its migration 
before the cold weather sets in and is 
then all ready to show its real beauty 
in the spring. When a tree is trans¬ 
planted in the fall it simply holds its 
own during its dormant period and 
waits until the spring to recover from 
the shock. July and August planting 
has advantages over spring planting. 
Labor is more easily obtained, super¬ 
intendence can be more carefully at¬ 
tended to than in the rush and pres¬ 
sure of spring work. The work can 
proceed more carefully, one tree can 
be handled at a time, the transition 
can be accomplished more quickly and 
efficiently. 
It is advisable to avoid mid-summer 
planting for trees such as tulips and 
sweet gums of large size that are nor¬ 
mally difficult to move. Apple trees and 
hawthorns are difficult to move. Dog¬ 
woods should not be moved in mid¬ 
summer. Birches are especially touchy 
and do not even tolerate fall planting. 
Beeches are fairly difficult to move 
though 20' trees have been moved suc¬ 
cessfully in July. Magnolias are not 
easy to move but have been trans¬ 
planted with success in mid-summer. 
September first is the very latest date 
to try moving them, however. It is 
generally advisable to avoid mid-sum¬ 
mer planting for alt trees with fleshy 
roots. Sweet gums, tulips and mag¬ 
nolias belong to this group. The roots 
of the magnolia, for instance, are very 
easily bruised and turning purple get 
what seems like a kind of blood poison¬ 
ing which is generally fatal. Oaks, too, 
with the single exception of the pin 
oak, are difficult to move. This dis¬ 
tinction is worth while noting, I think, 
because it illustrates a general prin¬ 
ciple. The pin oaks have a fibrous 
root growth and grow normally in 
moist or swampy ground. They are, 
therefore, easy to dig with a ball, and 
their fibrous roots suffer very little at 
disturbance. All the other oaks have 
long straggly roots, veritable cat’s 
claws, with few fibers, which do not 
adjust themselves so quickly and are 
slow to make a new foothold. 
THE KINDS MOST EASILY MOVED 
The trees that can be satisfactorily 
moved are elms, pin oaks, and all the 
various maples, more particularly red, 
sugar, silver and Norway maples. 
Hornbeams can be moved, mountain 
ashes move easily, oxydodendrons are 
moved with success. Willows, poplars 
and locust also move with great ease. 
Mid-summer planting is only worth¬ 
while for trees up to 6" or 8" in calibre. 
If the moving of larger trees is at¬ 
tempted it wilt be found that the added 
cost of moving them with a ball or 
half-ball is prohibitive. A tree of 6" 
calibre has usually a height of about 
20' and has a fair spread depending 
upon its location. If it has been grow¬ 
ing in the open it may have as much 
as 30' spread, while a tree standing in 
a close nursery will be cramped and 
unnatural in appearance. 
Mid-summer planting does not 
lend itself to the use of specimens. 
Its most important safeguard is the 
use of trees in large groups and in 
masses so that they can shelter one 
another. It is always advisable to 
feather down the planting with shrubs 
so that the trees are protected as much 
as possible from the winds that dry 
out the undersides of the leaves. More¬ 
over, in mass planting the occasional 
loss of a tree here and there does not 
count. 
This kind of planting lends itself, 
therefore, to boundary planting and 
to hedgerow effects. It lends itself to 
backgrounds and screen plantings. It 
lends itself best to groves and bos¬ 
quets. Anyone who has caught the 
spirit of the bosquets in Italian gar¬ 
dens, who has seen the tree planting in 
more or less regular spacing and equal 
height in such gardens as Versailles, 
where trees were planted in vast num¬ 
bers and in great masses upon level 
open plains, can easily understand its 
value for American use. In two of 
the examples of successful mid-summer 
planting, that I have recently heard 
of, the trees in these grove formations 
were used to bring the woodsy set¬ 
ting close up to the house. They 
formed the backgrounds for terraces 
and for long bowling-greens hedged 
with hornbeams. Pleasant flower 
gardens were found in their shelter¬ 
ing midst and curving paths with all 
manner of interesting woodsy plant¬ 
ing wandered back and forth. 
Even though we are seeing gardens 
and whole places created full grown, 
I would not have you think that I 
speak lightly of them for they prove 
no simple tasks. To have these groves 
appearing, quite suddenly in the short 
space of a few weeks, full grown and 
in the luxuriance of summer leafage 
does seem quite like the adventures 
of Aladdin'^s lamp; the people who are 
guiding these tasks are the genii of 
our modern landscape world. 
