As we head towards the back end of November, our bare root whips and pots of 10s make the journey down from the nursery and onto the garden centre… a journey made once a year as temperatures plummet and ‘growing power’ dwindles in the garden – clear signals that bare root season has arrived.

This year we have a wide selection once again, offering exceptional value to those who don’t fear the exposed ‘bare root’ option – particularly those looking to plant in large numbers, to create a hedge or group of trees while dormancy dominates… and before ‘growing power’ is revived in the garden once more, next spring.

Never hurts to try and remove the ‘fear factor’ so many of us have when it comes to bare root. Here goes…

–  The wallet won’t be anywhere near as light after your bare root purchases as it would be after equivalent pot grown purchases

– A frustrating time in the garden? Bored during the cold, dark winter days? Bare root can cure your boredom! For planting when there’s little else to plant.

– Variety is the spice of life and you’ll almost certainly find a greater range of bare root options to choose from, than pot grown equivalents. Many bare root options simply aren’t available to buy in any other form.

– Save your muscles a workout as you move and transport bare root plants with ease. Space savers and weight savers, bare root certainly is the ‘no hassle’ option.

– You may think a container grown plant would stand a better chance of taking off more quickly than its bare root equivalent, when in fact the opposite is true. The roots don’t have to make the transition from container soil to local soil with the bare root version. (Note, this is why all of our plants are potted into soil based compost – makes for a much smoother transition). Being planted in dormancy, they also have the advantage of several weeks root growth before their container counterparts are planted in spring.

Go on…give bare root a go!