Bare root perennials

Bare Root Perennial Planting

If you want to add more deciduous shrubs, trees, fruit canes or roses to your garden, then planting bare root perennials between autumn and spring is one of the cheapest and most sustainable ways to get things established and luckily, it's one of the easiest ways too.

Bare root perennials are dug out of the ground during their dormant period (when they are not growing). The soil is cleaned off them and then they are ready to buy.

While their bare, twiggy appearance means they might not look very attractive at this time of year, the plant is less disturbed. Designed to be planted straight away, the plant will be watered by seasonal rains, which will give it the best chance to settle in. Pretty much all perennials can be planted bare root. Some great edible perennials to plant in autumn include the following.

Fruits

• Apples (look for unusual varieties from your local area)
• Pears (look for unusual varieties from your local area)
• Cherry
• Plums, damsons or cherry plums
• Mulberry
• Fruiting shrubs, like gooseberry, currents, loganberry and raspberries
• Kiwi vines (in order to get fruits, select a sheltered spot and be sure to plant both male and female plants. The female variety 'Hayward' works well in a pair with the male 'Tormuri'. Or try a self-fertilising variety called 'Jenny')
• Roses (Rosa rugosa is best for sweet juicy hips)
• Seabuckthorn
• Rowan
• Elder (try Sambucus nigra 'Black Lace' for its deep black foliage)
• Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo)

Nuts

• Hazel
• Chestnut
• Walnut

Leaves

• Hawthorn
• Mulberry

Martin Crawford's book Creating a Forest Garden has many more recommendations to add to this list if you are very curious about perennial edibles.

How to Plant Your Bare Roots

Bare root plants are highly susceptible to drying out, so need to be planted out straight away or potted up temporarily. You can probably get away with keeping them in a bucket of water for a day, or alternatively you can 'heel' them into the ground.

This means making a slit in the earth and inserting the plant at an angle, so you know that it's not in its permanent position.

When planting out, look for the 'nursery line'. This is the mark of the soil on the plant, which will show you the depth it was originally planted at.

Do not plant when the soil is frozen or waterlogged.

List of Nurseries for Sourcing Bare Root Perennials

• The Mother Tree
• Organic Hedging and Trees | For All of Us
• Fruit Trees | Tamar Organics
• Pennard Plants, Heritage Vegetable and flower Seeds, Edible Plants and Agapanthus Fruit | Organic Gardening Catalogue
• Organic Catalogue
• Walcotnursery
• Perriehale