CHAPTER  V
 

                         Transplanting.



There is no operation connected with  the cultivation of trees and shrubs

upon whose proper performance  more depends than transplanting.   To

its successful accomplishment not only the health, the proper placing,  but

the very presence of a plant in a garden are due.  It may be said, indeed,

that it is only the art of transplanting that  makes a garden possible.  In

itself,  however, it  is an evil, although so  necessary a one.   With  few

exceptions, a tree  that is  rightly placed and  in  proper  soil  is better  left

undisturbed at the root.

    To understand the importance of  transplanting  it is well to consider

the typical root-system of a plant.  If a tree  old enough to have formed

a woody stem  be carefully taken out of the ground and  examined, it

will be found to have a root-system somewhat as  follows:—Proceeding

directly from the stem  there will be three, four, or more radiating main

roots  similar to the stem  in character;  these  are, of course, developed

from the first roots emitted by the seedling  and  have become woody with

age.  Issuing from them are other ramifications,  becoming smaller at each

subdivision, till at  last they cease to be woody and are invested merely by

hair-like organs.  It is important to remember  that the nutrition of  the

plant is entirely dependent on these hair-like roots.  All  the other portions

serve  merely as conduits  from  them to the stem,  and as supports and

holdfasts  for the  plant.   In  transplanting  it  will  thus  be seen how

important it is  that as many as possible of the finest rootlets should be

preserved.   A  plant bears transplanting well or badly according to its

power of renewing these rootlets quickly, or  to  its  capability of existing

with little loss  of vitality until  they  are renewed.   The  finer and  less

woody portions of the root-system send out  these fine  fibres more freely

and quickly than the older parts do,  which  is why young plants, even tiny

seedlings, are transplanted  with less risk than  old ones.

    Plants like rhododendrons and others of the heath family  are easily

transplanted because they produce an  enormous quantity of fibrous roots

close to the stem, enabling a much larger proportion cf working roots to

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