Get ready for the best planting time of the year: bare root season

Autumn is the start of the bare root season, and is particularly important when planting trees, hedges and roses. There is a huge variety of these plants available as bare root, and increasingly more perennials can be purchased this way too. 

 
A bare-root plant arrives dormant, lifted from the ground with no soil around its roots, which makes it a cheaper, more environmentally friendly way to buy plants. Add in warm soil and winter rainfall, and you’ve got the ideal conditions for many plants to establish.  

Bare roots are kept cold and moist before they're sent to you. Once they arrive, keeping them that way, and rehydrating them thoroughly before planting, is the first thing to get right. 
  

Once you take the plant out of the packaging, soak the roots in a bucket of water for around half an hour before planting, longer if they look dry. This rehydrates the roots after they've lost moisture in delivery, giving the plant a better start once it's back in the soil.  

Once it's planted, watering it in well is just as crucial, and so is keeping it watered while it establishes, especially through any warm spells. The plant's roots won't have reached the soil around them yet, so even frequent autumn and winter showers aren't always enough on their own. 
  

Pour at the base of the plant, directly above the roots. If the soil is dry, wet the surface gently with a rose first, then follow with the rest. Direct the water gently and smoothly to the new plant; a hard stream of water on freshly dug soil can cause craters and pockets in the surface, and may miss the roots altogether. 

Well watered doesn't mean waterlogged, though. Roots need air as much as they need water, so the aim is moist soil, not sodden. Keep an eye on both the plant and the soil around it for a full growing season, and for a year or more for trees and hedges.