You no longer have to rush to get all your shrubs and trees in the ground in the short spring planting time.
Using Up-to-Date Nursery Methods
With up-to-date nursery methods and the use of pots, you can extend the planting season to fit your convenience.
If you live in a small town, and the local nursery does not sell plants in containers, you can do your own.
These pots are a boon to gardeners. You can order shrubs early to get a wide selection and pot them up until you can plant them.
This is so much better than healing them in, for it gives the plants a good start.
Planting In Pots
Do you have to move to a new house?
Put your favorite shrubs in pots and take them along, and they will hardly know they have been moved.
Is construction work tearing up part of the garden?
Pot the plants into containers and set them to one side in a shady spot until the workmen are trampling around, then back they go.
Grouping Proposed Shrubs
For a place where you are not sure what to plant, group the proposed shrubs in their pots until satisfied with the picture before planting.
If you plan to move fairly large shrubs, evergreens, or trees during hot weather, prepare the plant a day before moving by digging a trench around it and soaking it well with water.
Pruning Time
Prune it back one-third, removing some branches back to the ground if it is a flowering shrub, spray it with Wilt Pruf plastic spray, and move it late in the day or on a cloudy day with as much dirt around it as possible.
Pack dirt firmly into the pot, water well, set it in a shady place, and keep it moist until ready to plant.
When you are ready for permanent planting, take off the tar paper and gently set the plant into the prepared hole.
Transplanting
Firm the soil around it and water. Any transplanting is some shock, so pamper your plants the first year while they convalesce.
Fertilize several weeks after setting them out and water them well twice a month. If evergreens show signs of weakness, spray with a liquid fertilizer like RaPid-Gro, which is absorbed through dead foliage.
44659 by Alice Upham Smith