root growth has again begun.
Autumn is a season generally of much atmospheric moisture, grateful
dews, and welcome rains. It is the season for planting in general, and
seldom is the work seriously disturbed until Christmas is past. We have
shifted many evergreens without one failure in April and quite late in
May, but our anxieties are great when the life-giving rains refuse to
refresh the earth. The spring of 1901 will never be forgotten as a
season of dry winds and brilliant sunshine, without rain to temper the
unfortunate conditions, and the result was a great loss amongst newly
planted evergreens. Mr. Bean says: "Some evergreens can with reasonable
care be moved with perfect safety at any time, except perhaps from July
to September. Rhododendrons are an example. During the last ten years I
have transplanted them in every month of the year, except July and
August. Indeed, in the case of Rhododendrons and most evergreen
ericaceous plants, the problems of transplanting scarcely arise, simply
because the fine fibres hold the soil so completely that the root system
can, with due care, be removed practically intact. For the same reasons,
very careful transplanting, such as is practised with a transplanting
machine, may also be done at almost any season.

"When the roots of large evergreen shrubs have been unavoidably damaged,
it is often a good plan to remove a portion of the leafy branches. This
helps to restore, in some measure, the balance between root and top. The
shrub will frequently do this itself. Hollies, for instance, often lose
a large proportion of their leaves after transplanting in spring; it is
one of the surest signs of success, just as the _shrivelling_ of the
leaves on the branches is the worst. Evergreen oaks also furnish other
examples." A difference of opinion exists as to removing any of the
leafy branches. A great authority writes me: "Keep on all the foliage
you can. I have seen this succeed with large deciduous trees."

Remember that Evergreen oaks planted in late spring or in summer should
receive a thorough soaking of water once, then no more until new growth
begins. _Syringe freely three times a day in hot weather._ I once saw a
yew hedge that had been planted in mid-winter, the wrong time; it was
looking rather brown through exposure to March winds. The time I refer
to (April) a man was pouring water into the roots and the result was
that nearly all these fine plants died. Had he damped the f