Nursery (plant)

“ It is a common notion that trees grown from suckers sprout or sucker worse than those grown from seeds. Layers are also extensively employed for the propagation of the plum. Strong stools (page 35) are grown, and the long and strong shoots are covered in spring throughout their length—the tips only being exposed—and every bud will produce a plant. Strong shoots of vigorous sorts will give plants strong enough the first fall to be removed into nursery rows. ”

“ When large numbers of plants are desired, as in commercial nurseries, it is often necessary to cut back the parent plant to the ground, or very nearly so, for the purpose of securing many shoots fit for layering. A plant which is cut back in the spring will produce shoots fit for layering the following spring; or some species will produce them in abundance the same year if layers of green or immature wood are desired. ”

“ A berry, generally one which has itself fallen ripe from the tree, is put into the ground, usually in a nursery plot, though some planters prefer to place the seed in the identical hole which is to be its future situation. The nursery plan is, however, generally adopted, and here the young plant, which shoots up in about a month after it is sown, is allowed to remain until about sixteen months old. ”

“ In a month the shoots will be from three to four inches high. When seed is sown and dry weather follows, the seedlings will perish. It will be necessary, therefore, to plant the ground anew. It is wise, therefore, to raise plants in a nursery to supply the vacancies in the hills. ”

“ The catalogues should be searched every Spring for suitable subjects. The best time for sowing is the Spring, but any time during the Summer will do. Many perennials and bulbs must be bought in nurseries and increased as well as may be in nursery beds. As to soil, etc., the best way is to avoid the trouble of preparing it except for specially interesting plants. The great point is to adapt the plant to the soil—in peaty places to place plants that thrive in peat, in clay soils those that thrive in clays, and so on. ”

“ The plant you procure from the nursery will be small. So small, indeed, that if you leave eight or ten feet between it and the next one you set out, it will look so lonesome that it excites your pity, and you may be induced to plant another in the unfilled space to keep it company. But in doing this you will be making a great mistake. Three or four years from now the bushes will have run together to such an extent that each plant has lost its individuality. There will be a thicket of branches which will constantly interfere with each other's well being, and [Pg 54] prevent healthy development. ”

“ A very important point is the getting of a stock of plants to begin with. In country or other places where many good old border flowers remain in the cottage gardens, many species may be collected therein. A series of nursery beds should be formed in some by–place in which such subjects could be increased to any desired degree. Free–growing spring–flowers like Aubrietia, Alyssum, and Iberis, may be multiplied to any extent by division or cuttings. Numbers of kinds may be raised from seed sown rather thinly in drills, in nursery beds in the open air. ”

“ For these plantlets I chose a nursery that was not exposed all day to the sun. One has to think for them; they repay it with quicker and sturdier growth, which means better flowering capacity in the spring.
So all my wallflowers, forget-me-nots, Canterbury-bells, sweet-Williams, silene, were thus attended to, and, added to my nursery division of perennial seeds, which I now divided up in like fashion, made a grand show, or promise rather. ”

“ The little trees should be set in well-mellowed soil, to the exact depth that they attained in the nursery. They should be given plenty of water to start with, trimmed of all their leaves, and the earth should be packed solidly about their roots. After this be careful not to give them too much water; just enough to keep the earth about them damp is sufficient.
A year or so after being set in its permanent place, and after it has put on a healthy new growth, all nursery stock should be budded from well-known varieties of its own kind. ”

“ But many persons, purchasers and sellers, prefer larger trees, and they recommend that the trees should remain one, two, or even three years longer in the nursery. Others, a new school of planters, prefer to set out the maiden tree, in most of the species above named, except some very feebly growing varieties, that will [136] scarcely have attained sufficient size to risk in the orchard. The nurseryman should beware of keeping his trees too long on his hands; they may become unprofitable stock, and are sure to require much more labor in the digging and handling. ”

“ Plants raised in a nursery are usually sown in bottomless baskets about one inch below the surface in a place well sheltered from the winds. The nurseries must be kept free from weeds and well watered every day in dry weather, especially when the seeds are planted in bamboo baskets, for should the earth become hard and dry the nuts will not germinate. ”

“ The nurseryman must wait until his stocks have been grown one or more years in the nursery, his trees will sometimes be larger than he desires, they will be apt to have the mark of the grafting as a blemish upon the stalk sometimes during the life of the tree; and worse than all, he is restricted to a brief period in the spring, when he is obliged to perform the operation out of doors, and often in very unpleasant weather. ”

“ The soil for a nursery should be rich, well dug, dressed with well-decayed manure, free from weeds, and protected from cold winds. Fruit-seeds should be planted in the autumn, an inch and a half or two inches deep, in ridges four or five feet apart, pressing the earth firmly over the seeds. While growing, they should be thinned out, leaving the best ones a foot and a half apart. The soil should be kept loose, soft, and free from weeds. They should be inoculated or ingrafted when of the size of a pipe-stem ”

“ For a nursery, a plat of rich soil is selected, free from stone and cleared from brushwood, except the tall trees, which are left for shade. The ground is dug over and formed into beds from three to four feet wide and the seed is sown nine to twelve inches apart and shaded at eight to twelve inches above ground, by a pendall of leaves. The plants are kept watered on alternate days until they have one pair of leaves, but the shade should not be removed until the plants are six to eight inches high and are able to bear the sun. ”

“ The garden will require extra labor in all this month. After the 15th, tender bulbs and tubers may be planted, dahlias, amaryllises, tuberoses, etc. Peas will require brush; [Pg 93] all your plants from the hot-bed should by this time be well a growing in open air. Roses will be showing their buds. If large roses of a favorite sort are required, more than half the buds should be taken off, and the whole strength of the plant be given to the remainder. The soil for this best of all flowers, cannot be too rich, nor too deep. ”

“ The biennial seeds are best sown in the seed nursery, where they can be watched and protected. In the late summer the young plants will be big and strong enough to set out in the border, although you must give them a light covering of leaves and litter. The seeds started in July and August, however, better be left protected in the nursery and moved in the early spring. ”

“ Mere ornament is not what strikes the visitor, and yet the nursery is one beautiful picture in its varied and blending colors of fruit, flowers, and foliage; for the orchard and garden are by no means neglected—the visitor can find the fruits themselves, the crucial test. ”

“ It is the practice of nurserymen to force their trees by cultivation, and by pruning. It is very well known, to those conversant with the nursery business, that great growers and early growers are the favorites (and, so far as an expeditious preparation of stock for sale is concerned, justly) , that slow and tedious growers are put upon rampant growing stocks to quicken them. In some cases manures are freely applied to the soil, as directed by all writers who teach [Pg 313] how to prepare ground for a nursery. But such writers had their eye upon the soil of England or New England. ”

“ In our early gardening days we often used to get a healthy Palm or Indiarubber from a good nursery, thinking when we bought it that the nurseryman was rather stupid and neglectful to leave the poor thing caged in that little pot of hard soil. We would bring it home, turn it out, find its roots in a thick mat, plunge them into a pot about four times the size of the old one, full of nice, loose, fresh soil, and expect it to grow like Jack’s Beanstalk in its happy new conditions. The ungrateful thing usually died. ”

“ The love of flowers is very desirable in children, and should be cultivated from their earliest years. For that reason, if for no other, we should be exceedingly sorry to have any physician whose judgment we respected forbid the cultivation of house-plants, particularly in the nursery. ”

“ The nursery beds are made about six feet wide and of any length desired, and are shaded by a flat framework of sticks three to three and one-half feet high, over which is placed grass or cocoanut leaves. The ground is watered every morning and evening by taking water in the hand from the watering pot until the seeds have developed. When the plants appear above ground they are watered every other day, and when about six inches high every ten days. ”

“ If there is any good land at the place a nursery ought to be fenced in and a quantity of plants raised there as a stand by. When well established a number of these plants should be broken up every winter and planted out, but care should be taken to replant in the nursery, and to keep it permanent. ”

“ To have blooming plants by holidays they are propagated by seeds, sown in spring or summer in pans or pots of light, rich, sandy soil, and kept in a close frame or hand-light, where they can be shaded till germination takes place. ”

“ The water plants are very interesting in that the pollen is just light enough to float on the exact level of the mother part of the flower, otherwise fertilization could never take place, and there would be no more lovely lilies. Long throated blossoms are fertilized by their attraction for certain moths or humming birds who have long tongues. Mother Nature is exceedingly careful to reproduce her children, and in every conceivable way she sees to it that her plant-seeds are fertilized and distributed. ”

“ There is a common idea, which I myself once shared, that it is always best to have your nursery on new land, but this is really not at all necessary if you renew your land by carting on to it top soil from the jungle, or even a mixture of any fresh soil that has not been trampled upon, and which has been mixed with cattle manure and some bone-meal. I consider it most important to retain the same site for the nursery, because, by growing casuarinas to cast lateral shade on it, you can ultimately dispense with shading the nursery, as these trees run up quickly, and attain a great height. ”

“ It is not more than one fourth of the ordinary work to keep a nursery clean in this way. Two thirds of those thus planted and cultivated will be large enough for root-grafting the first season, and for cleft-grafting the second. When your seedlings are six inches high, if you thoroughly mulch them with fine straw or manure, you will be troubled with no more weeds, and your trees will get a strong growth. ”

“ Towards the end of the month you can divide those herbaceous plants that are not spring-flowering, if you wish to increase them. You must not disturb plants that are just going to flower, but all the strong kinds will stand division and transplanting when they have only sent up young leaves. For instance, you could take up a Phlox, a Michaelmas Daisy, or even a Pyrethrum, on a showery day, pull it to pieces, and find that every bit made a strong plant by the autumn. In the rock garden the mossy Saxifrages that have bald places in the middle should be taken up, divided, and firmly replanted. ”

“ Where it is practicable and within reach, it is best for the planter to visit the nursery and make his own selection of the trees, especially if the demand be for a limited number; but he may generally depend upon the judgment and honesty of the nurseryman, if he has given his order distinctly as to the shape of the trees he desires to purchase. ”

“ The nursery will have become an orchard—one rather closely planted to be sure—but the trees can be dwarfed by root pruning with the plow, they shelter one another from the prairie blasts, and when too thick, alternate trees may be removed to the wood-pile, and thus cheer the owner on a winter's day.
Winter-killing is a serious evil in the nursery, as by it whole rows and blocks of certain varieties are sometimes destroyed, or very seriously injured. ”

“ Should the nursery-beds apparently become dry from blighting winds or other causes, watering will be absolutely necessary, for the ground ought to be kept in a moist state from the time the seed is planted until the young plants are large enough to be set out. ”

“ Weeding and watering should still be attended to; and at the approach of cold weather, in autumn, they should be sheltered under a frame, and replaced in the hot-beds, in the ensuing spring. After having been thus managed for three years, they should be taken out of the pots, and planted in the nursery-ground, where they may remain till strong enough to be finally transplanted. ”