AUTUMN PLANTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 May 1938, Page 3

AUTUMN PLANTING

HAS MANY ADVANTAGES. Autumn planting has many advantages, It is, on the whole, the best season of the year to remove anything of which transplantation presents any difficulty. However, really well-trans-planted and well-grown nursery stock will, with a few negligible exceptions, move safely even in the dead of winter. The fall of the leaf is upon us, so that deciduous stuff may be lifted without danger. The bulk of herbaceous plants may now be put in place. There is still time to plant a great variety of spring flowering bulbs. Last, but by no means least, one may still lift and relay turf with the consciousness that it will be re-established by winter. When considerable alterations are under way, it is an immense convenience to be able to carry through the work from start to finish without a break.

As regards the coniferae and other evergreen trees and shrubs much of the ill-success which each year attends such planting is due to the purchase of “cheap” unsuitable stock in the first instance. Cheap, showy stock may bei readily produced by failing to transplant and by letting the top growth develop at its own sweet will. Such trees can always be told by the experienced gardener from the thrifty stock, which bears the marks of proper nursery treatment. Those unskilled in the signs of thrifty growth should buy their stock only from a

house with a reputation, and beware of plants offered at “cut”’ prices. A method of producing stock cheaply is to attend an auction sale where stock is being sold under the hammer to clear ground. Sometimes a real reduction may be obtained in this way, but it is well to make sure that the plants offered have been properly transplanted right up to the time of sale.