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Transplanting

This is a most important operation, and is indispensable in the art of gardening. A vast number of seeds must be sown in beds, and afterwards transplanted into their final situations; this is particularly the case with regard to flowers. The instrument with which transplanting is performed is callde a trowel, of which there are both small and large. In using it the principal thing to be attended to, is to take the best and most vigorous of the plants raised in the seed-bed, without injuring their roots, and with the earth around them, and placing them, with as little disturbance of their roots as possible, in their new situations. In transplanting shrubs, &c. from pots, the planter should very slightly break the earth round the roots of the plant, so that its fibres may have free play in the new earth. In transplanting shrubs, &c. particular care should be taken in digging them up, so that the young fibres of the roots are not injured. When shrubs, &c. are first transplanted, they should be moderately watered, and of course it is bad management to plant shrubs at a time when they are likely to suffer from sun. The right time to transplant is in the autumn and spring, when the ground is nice and dry, and "in good working order," as gardeners term it.