Cbc Hlational IRursei^man. 
FOR GROWER SAND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated 
Vol. XXXII 
HATBORO, PENN A., AUGUST 1924 
No. 8 
Some Experiences With Summer Planting 
The old saying that there is nothing new under the sun 
is certainly a])plicahle to this phase of summer planting. 
I do not i)rofess to have been a discoverer nor even orig¬ 
inal but have gathered ideas and encouragement from 
others that have materially assisted in the successful 
completion of my methods. I do believe our ])ractices are a 
little out of the oft trodden and hard worn paths of gen¬ 
eral nursery methods. Perhaj)S I am too enthusiastic, 
licrhajis time has not proven all its deficiencies, or per- 
iiaps the great task of education of the public to plant 
“out of season” may ])rove that this innovation of sum¬ 
mer planting has no future. Still after three years ex- 
])erimentation and observation I am still optimistic and if 
you will he })atieiit with me for a few minutes I will tell 
of my experiences, my ideas and comments—all with 
litnitations that shall he later mentioned. 
I realize that some of our northern and eastern friends 
have practiced summer planting and successfully, using 
care and special preparation of plants intended for this 
purpose. Fraidcly I do not think that their methods can 
he successfully followed in the southern, central or west¬ 
ern states. Our soils are different, our climate is different 
and the care given stock after planting is not quite equal 
to that given by prudent home owners of the general east¬ 
ern section. If we had the cool nights, and the heavy 
dews that are more serviceable than southern showers 
we might succeed with your methods but with our hot 
winds, uncertain weather and heavy clay soils that are 
not as retentive of moisture as your alluvial and glacial 
formations, makes your practices douhttul. In periods of 
■ drought even in your favored sections with their friable 
soils I am dubious of your ability to consistantly dig and 
j)lant every day during the summer months and get sat¬ 
isfactory results. Our method is a surer way. Simple and 
successful, slightly more expensive but service and re¬ 
sults will pay the extra charge. 
Here’s how we are doing it. We })lant all the sub- 
.jects in WIRE BASKETS. These are made with mesh of 
either half or one inch so the roots could develop natur¬ 
ally too in the outside soil. It is a very simple way and 
with your juactical training you can, I believe, imme¬ 
diately see the great possibilities of handling plants this 
way. 
Our methods follow. With a breaking i)low we open a 
wide furrow, usually necessary to make two trips to a 
I'ow, bearing a little heavy on the beam to throw out a 
deep trench. The baskets are placed in the bottom of this, 
properly spaced and then you are ready tor planting. In 
preparing your plants for this purpose you should prune 
the roots close, that is to fit inside the basket, as this en¬ 
courages a quick and heavy development of tihrous roots 
just within which later serves to hold the soil intact and 
also develops a mass of roots or contact with your soil 
in transplanting. After this root ])runing, ])lant in these 
baskets just as you would in any dug hole and cultivate 
just as any other nursery planting. In the case of ever¬ 
greens or other subjects that are transferred into tin' 
basket with balls of soil, perhaps on some of your sandy 
types you might have to line your basket temporarily with 
pajter, burlap, straw, moss or something to prevent the 
soil from sifting out while doing this initial moving of 
the basket, but after a season’s or year’s growing in the 
basket you will find that your newly developed roots will 
hold the soil so firmly that huiiajiping will not be neces¬ 
sary if carefully handled. In either case you can pre¬ 
pare a great many plants during a day and the cost will 
be astonishingly low if you systematize your planting op¬ 
eration. 
Now for some of the results. This makes it possible to 
move subjects of all kinds at any time during the sum¬ 
mer. We can show you jobs completely planted with 
shrubs in full blossom, full leaf and without failures. 
We do not confine our planting to those subjects that are 
easy to grow. Besides the ordinary shrubs we use sparse 
root makers like Loniceras, Abelia, Mahonia, Junipers, 
Retinispora and conifers. Several of our co-operating 
friends have used these to plant clumps of perennials, like 
Peonies, Shasta Daisies, etc., and uniformly good results 
are obtained. We shij)ped ])lants in baskets into a num- 
her of states. Several of you here received them. We 
have sent several thousand of these into the South. Paul 
Lindley, Chases, Ollie Fraser, Boyd Bros, will tell you they 
are successful. I am indebted to my good friend, Mr. A. 
T. DeLaMare of the Florist Exchange through whose 
kindness and co-operation I obtained the names of (juite 
a few persons interested in the trial of the baskets. I 
have in my files interesting letters from California, New 
York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Illinois, 
Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Minnesota, as well as 
the southern ones mentioned before from men who have 
tried this scheme and it works. Some of these replies are 
from theory and the most valuahh' from actual trial. 
There are three things that limit the possibilities of 
these baskets for summer ])lanting. First, it is not prac¬ 
tical to use on extra large plants. Second, it is primarily 
a local institution designed lor extensive use oidy by the 
local retailer (though we have shipped several successful 
plantings hut the packing cost on deciduous shrubs is too 
great). Third, it is only practical where containers can 
be had at a nominal cost. May I make other comments 
