The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Shrubs And Trees
A ball of earth, however neatly or expertly wrapped in burlap, is not worth anything if it contains merely a chopped off lot of coarse roots, or if it represents merely a plant dug with bare roots over which a quantity of soil has been artificially packed in such manner as to resemble a good B&B job. A great deal of such material finds its way out of nurseries here and there, notably in the case of Flowering Dogwoods, dug in the autumn, stored in a cellar over winter and finally packed with soil, burlapped and puddled in clay. Such B&B material often isn't worth planting.
Whether one plants bare-root or balled materials, it is impossible to overstate the importance of careful digging and handling on the part of the nurseryman, and the preferability of freshly dug over so called pre-dug and stored materials, especially in the case of the choicer and more finicky kinds. It will not pay the planter to buy such things as Dogwood and Oriental Cherries at bargain rates. They require expert handling, and this priceless ingredient is commonly more readily available in the local nursery than at the distant, large outfit. The local nursery, with its smaller, more permanent crew of diggers, is likely to do better justice to the digging and handling of shrubs and trees than is the very large establishment with its transient crews of green labor.
When a planting job is in progress, whether it is done by the owner or by the nurseryman, the local nursery can usually arrange to dig and deliver the materials as they are wanted,— in small, convenient lots that need not be exposed to wind and sun, whereas the distant nursery must necessarily deliver large lots at a time, which may have to lie about, awaiting planting.
Shrubs and trees that appear to be more or less dried out are comparatively poor risks. If they are quite dry at planting time (which, with proper handling at the nursery and on the job they should never be), it will be well to soak bare-rooted materials thoroughly, overnight, in a pail or tub of water or in the garden pool, before they are planted.
Much of their success depends upon the presence or absence of sufficient fibrous root. A plant with nothing but a few coarse, thick roots, without fine, fibrous rootlets, stands a poor chance of survival. This is largely a matter of whether or not the shrub was transplanted or root-pruned in the nursery with sufficient frequency. Repeated transplanting or root-pruning results in the development of a compact and fibrous root-system which helps a plant to re-establish itself after it has been transplanted. When planting takes place in the autumn, such a root-system will begin to function even before and during the winter, and help the plant through its first winter, while a mere few coarse roots will not provide nourishment until the following spring.
All of these considerations together determine the hardiness of a shrub or tree, and particularly its ability to withstand the hardships of its first winter.
