Autumn is the best planting season for trees, shrubs and hedges, because the soil is still warm and the plant is heading into dormancy: it has no leaves to feed, so it can put all its energy into roots. Rootballed plants go in from around mid October, bare root plants from November until mid April, and container plants can go in right through the autumn. Bare root is by far the cheapest and for a hedge it is often three to five times better value than the same species out of a pot. The biggest mistake is not the timing but the depth: a tree planted too deep will die, because the root collar has to stay visible. And check the rules on boundaries: as a working guideline a tree belongs at least 2 metres from the boundary line and a shrub or hedge at least 0.5 metres, unless your council or your neighbour allows otherwise.
Hey DIYer,
Everybody plants in spring. The sun is out, you get the itch, you walk into the garden centre and come out with a full trolley.
And then June arrives. Dry. Hot. And there you are every evening with the watering can, fighting to keep alive something that has not got a single root into the ground yet.
In autumn you do not have that problem.
The soil is still warm from summer, the rain does the work, and the plant is about to go into winter dormancy. It has no leaves to feed, so every bit of energy it has goes downwards: new root hairs. By the time spring starts, it is already standing there with a root system that the spring planter will not have until July.
That is the whole trick. There is nothing more to it.
But there is some craft in the how. I will run through all of it below: which form of plant you choose and what it costs, exactly when, how you dig the planting hole, how many plants per metre you need for your hedge, how far you have to stay from the boundary, and the mistakes that still finish off most autumn planting.
Here we go:
Why autumn beats spring
Four reasons, and they reinforce each other.
1. The soil is warm. Soil lags behind the air. In October the ground is still warmed through from summer while the air is already cooling. That is exactly the combination you want: warm soil makes new root hairs, cool air asks nothing of the foliage.
2. The rain does the watering. New planting dries out far more slowly in autumn, which saves you a lot of work with the hose. Plant in spring and you become the water pump for your own garden. In autumn the weather does the job. Source: Groei & Bloei
3. The plant is dormant. Deciduous plants have dropped their leaves. There is no transpiration, so there is no stress. A plant you move while it is dormant barely notices. A plant you move in May with leaves on it has to keep supplying water using roots it has just lost.
4. Bare root is only available now. That is not a minor detail, because on a hedge it easily saves you a few hundred pounds. More on that shortly.
The flip side: not everything wants to go in during autumn. Frost tender species and species that cope badly with wet winters are better planted in spring. Groei & Bloei names hebe and fuchsia among others (frost tender) as well as species that cannot handle winter wet. There is also this: the younger and smaller the plant, the more vulnerable it is in its first winter.
Rule of thumb worth remembering: deciduous and hardy → autumn. Frost tender, Mediterranean or freshly rooted → spring.
Bare root, rootball or pot: the choice that costs or saves you money
This is the most important decision you make, and most people do not even make it consciously, because they simply buy whatever is standing in the garden centre.
Bare root
The plant is lifted from open ground at the nursery and comes to you with no soil at all on the roots. No pot, no rootball, no wire. Just plant.
- Available: roughly mid October to mid April, once the leaves are off and as long as the plant has not started into growth
- Suited to: hedges (beech, hornbeam, privet, hawthorn, field maple), fruit trees, avenue trees, woodland and native planting, roses
- Advantage: by far the cheapest, light to carry, plenty of root mass for the price
- Disadvantage: short shelf life and extremely vulnerable to drying out
- Not suited to: evergreens such as yew, laurel and box in larger sizes. Those usually come rootballed or potted
That drying out is not theory. Nurseries factor it in: roots left lying above ground in wind and sun for a quarter of an hour already cost you a serious slice of your chances of establishment. Source: Lepona So: keep the box shut, hessian over the top, out of the wind, and only unpack at the moment the hole is ready.
Rootball (with or without wire)
The plant is lifted with the soil around it, wrapped in hessian and usually a thin steel mesh. You can leave that mesh in the ground: it rusts away and the roots grow straight through it.
- Available: roughly September to April
- Suited to: larger trees, evergreen hedges (yew, laurel), large specimen shrubs
- Advantage: the fine roots stay intact in their own soil, higher establishment rate with big planting stock
- Disadvantage: heavy (a rootball 60 cm across is not a one person lift), more expensive than bare root
Important: never shake a rootball out to check “whether there are actually roots in there”. You destroy precisely what you are paying for.
Container (pot)
Grown or potted on in a pot, with the root system entirely in compost.
- Available: all year
- Advantage: you can plant whenever you like (except in frost and in high summer heat), and you can see exactly what you are buying
- Disadvantage: the most expensive, and watch out for circling roots: if the plant has stood in the same pot too long, the roots spiral around the inside of the pot. They carry on doing that in the ground and strangle the plant over time. Spot a tight, matted root ball like that? Make three or four vertical cuts into it with a knife and tease the outer roots loose.
So what do you choose?
| Situation | Best choice |
|---|---|
| Hedge of 10 metres or more, deciduous | Bare root |
| Evergreen hedge (yew, laurel) | Rootball |
| A single tree, instant effect wanted, large size | Rootball |
| Fruit tree | Bare root |
| You are not sure yet exactly where it goes | Pot |
| You are planting outside the planting season | Pot |
| Tight budget, patience available | Bare root, small size |
The rule of thumb that saves the most money: the smaller you buy, the faster it establishes and the cheaper it is. A bare root hedging plant of 60 to 80 cm often catches up with a 150 cm potted plant within three or four years, and along the way it has cost less water and suffered fewer losses. Buying big sizes is buying time, and time is the most expensive product in the garden.
The planting timeline: what goes in when
| Period | What can go in the ground |
|---|---|
| September | Container plants; the first rootballed stock |
| Mid October | Rootballed stock in full swing; leaves dropping on deciduous plants |
| November | Best month. Bare root starts, soil still warm, no night frost |
| December to January | Possible, as long as it is frost free. Soil is colder, root growth is almost at a standstill |
| February to mid March | Second best period. Bare root still widely available |
| Mid April | End of the bare root season: the buds are breaking |
| May to August | Container plants only, and then plenty of water |
For hedging plants November counts as the preferred month: the soil is still warm from summer and there is no sustained frost yet. Source: Budgetplant
Never plant into frozen ground. Not because the plant will not survive it, but because clods of frozen soil give you no contact between root and soil. And without contact there is no water uptake. Freezing weather? Then you simply wait. Bare root plants will happily bridge a week or two if you heel them in: dig a shallow trench in a sheltered spot, lay the plants in at an angle with the roots in the trench, and shovel soil over them until the roots are completely covered. They will sit safely like that for weeks.
The planting hole: wide, not deep
This is where it goes wrong most often. Remember this rule:
A planting hole can never be too wide, but it can be too deep.
How wide
At least one and a half times, preferably twice the diameter of the rootball or the root spread. For a tree, leave at least a foot length of space all round, so around 30 to 35 cm between the rootball and the wall of the hole. Source: Van den Berk Boomkwekerijen
Why so wide? For the first two years the roots grow mainly sideways, in the layer where the oxygen is. Loose soil at the sides is exactly what they need. A narrow, deep hole is a bucket that water sits in.
How deep
As deep as the rootball is tall. Not one centimetre deeper.
Measure the height of the rootball or root system before you start digging. While planting, lay a straight batten or a spade handle across the hole: the top of the rootball has to sit level with the surrounding soil, or a couple of centimetres above it to allow for settling.
The reference point is called the root collar: the spot where the trunk turns into the roots, often visible as a slight flare and a change of colour in the bark. You should still be able to see it after planting.
If it ends up under the soil, this is what happens: the bark stays permanently damp, starts to rot, and the plant dies off, sometimes only after three or four years, and by then you have no idea why. Planting too deep is the most common cause of trees that “just” fade away.
Loosen the soil, do not replace it
Break up the sides and the base of the hole with a garden fork. On clay or on a new build plot this is not a luxury but a necessity: there is often a rock hard compacted layer under the topsoil that no root can get through and that water sits on top of.
The water test takes five minutes: pour a bucket of water into the dug hole. Still there an hour later? Then you have a drainage problem. The fix: make the hole wider, break up the subsoil deeper, or plant the tree on a slight mound (10 to 15 cm above the surrounding level, with the soil around it sloping away). Skip this and it will drown in the first wet winter.
What goes back into the hole
Backfill with the soil you took out. Mix in a little compost at most, to improve the structure.
Do not:
– Fill the hole with expensive compost or bought topsoil. You are building a luxury bathtub the roots will never want to leave. When they do reach the edge, they hit the hard soil and start circling.
– Put fresh manure or artificial fertiliser in the planting hole. That burns young roots. In autumn the plant does not need feeding anyway, it is going to sleep.
– Pour water into the planting hole before planting. You turn it into a slurry with no oxygen in it.
What you should do: puddle it in as you backfill. Fill the hole halfway, pour water in so the soil settles down between the roots, then fill the rest. That gets rid of the air pockets without you having to stamp the soil down.
Step by step planting
Bare root:
- Stand the plants in a bucket of water for half an hour to an hour before you start. No longer: roots left underwater for days will suffocate.
- Trim off damaged and torn root ends with sharp secateurs. A clean cut heals, a ragged end rots.
- Dig the hole or the trench (for a hedge: one continuous trench, roughly 40 cm wide and 40 cm deep, is far handier and far better than individual holes).
- Make a small cone of soil in the base and drape the roots over it so they point outwards and downwards. Roots you cram in pointing upwards or curled round will die off.
- Hold the plant at the right height, with the root collar level with the surrounding soil, and backfill.
- Puddle in with water, backfill the rest, firm lightly with your foot. Lightly. Do not stamp.
- Give it another good soaking, even if it is raining.
Rootball:
- Submerge the rootball in water until no more bubbles come up, if it feels dry.
- Never lift the plant by the trunk or the branches. Lift it by the rootball. Pulling on the trunk tears the rootball away from the roots, and then you have an expensive bare root plant with a bag of sand around it.
- Set it in the hole, check the height, and only then cut the ties at the trunk and fold the hessian down and open. Mesh and hessian can stay in the ground.
- Backfill, puddle in, firm lightly, water.
Container:
- Check the root ball. Circling roots? Cut into it and tease them loose.
- Otherwise as for a rootball. Pay extra attention to the height: compost settles, so plant 2 cm too high rather than 2 cm too low.
Hedges: how many plants per metre do you need?
This is the question your order gets stuck on, so here are the guidelines. They vary by species and by plant size: the bigger the plant, the fewer you need per metre.
| Species | Plants per linear metre (guideline) |
|---|---|
| Beech / hornbeam, small size (up to ~125 cm) | 4 to 6 |
| Beech / hornbeam, large size (125 to 200 cm) | 4 |
| Privet | 3 to 4 |
| Yew, size 60 to 100 cm | 3 |
| Portuguese laurel, 80 to 100 cm | 3 |
| Portuguese laurel, from 100 cm | around 2.5 |
Source: Haagplantdirect and Gras & Haag
The general line: most hedging plants sit at 3 to 5 per metre. Fast growers such as privet need fewer than slow growers such as yew, because they close the gaps by themselves more quickly.
Practical tips for a straight, dense hedge:
- Run a line. Two pegs, a taut string, and your hedge will still be straight in 20 years. Skip it and you will see the wobble every single day.
- Dig a trench, not holes. Faster, and the roots can grow sideways through loose soil.
- For a double row (for an extra dense hedge) you plant staggered with around 30 cm between the rows. That costs more plants and is usually not necessary.
- Cut a bare root hedge back after planting, by about a third of its height. It feels like a waste, but it restores the balance between root and top growth and forces the plant to break low down. A hedge you do not cut back goes bare at the base, and with beech or privet you will hardly ever get that back later.
- Check your order in plants, not in metres. For 10 metres of beech at 4 per metre you order 40, plus 2 or 3 spare for losses.
The tree stake: when yes, when no
A young tree does not always need a stake. A tree that is allowed to move a little actually builds a thicker, stronger base to its trunk. Hold it rigid and it stays thin and floppy, and it will fall over the moment you take the stake away.
Stake for: trees from around 2.5 to 3 metres, trees with a large crown, and windy, exposed sites.
Do not stake: shrubs, hedging plants, small trees up to around 2 metres.
How to do it properly:
- Drive the stakes in before you put the tree in the hole. Otherwise you drive straight through the rootball.
- Keep around 30 cm between stake and trunk.
- Drive the stake at least 60 cm into the ground
Key measurements for staking a young tree. , or at least a third of its length. Source: Van den Berk Boomkwekerijen
- Tie low. At around a third of the trunk height, not just under the crown. Tying low holds the rootball still and lets the trunk move. That is exactly what you want.
- Use a wide tree tie, not string and not a length of hose with wire through it. The tie should not be loose, but there should be no tension on it either.
- Two stakes, at right angles to the prevailing wind (in north west Europe usually south westerly), or three stakes in a triangle for a heavy rootball.
- Take the stakes out after two, at most three growing seasons. Forget that and the tie grows into the bark and you strangle your own tree. Set a reminder on your phone for two years from now. Seriously.
Watering: the year after planting is the one that counts
Autumn planting needs hardly any water in the first months. But from April onwards you have a customer.
- Straight after planting: a good soaking, even in the rain. That is not for drinking, that is to settle the soil around the roots.
- Winter: only during a long frost free dry spell, and only for evergreens. They carry on transpiring.
- Spring and summer of year 1: this is the critical season. Better a large amount once a week than a little every day. A small splash never gets past the top few centimetres and actually draws the roots upwards. For a young tree you are talking 20 to 40 litres per watering, for a hedge a thorough soaking of the whole trench.
- Year 2: keep an eye on it in dry spells. New trees need extra water for at least the first two years.
- From year 3: in a normal summer it will cope on its own, unless the dry weather really drags on.
Handy trick: build a watering ring: a low ridge of soil in a circle around the trunk, roughly the same diameter as the planting hole. Water stays inside it and soaks down over the roots instead of running off across the lawn.
And lay a mulch. Five to eight centimetres of wood chip, bark or composted leaves around the plant. That holds moisture, keeps weeds down and insulates the soil. One rule: keep the mulch ten centimetres away from the trunk. Mulch against the bark is moisture against the bark, and that is exactly what you were trying to avoid with the root collar.
Where are you allowed to plant? Boundaries and the law
This is where people trip up, and it turns into an argument that can run for years. Rules on planting distances from a boundary differ from country to country and often from council to council, so always check what applies where you live before you dig.
As a working reference, the distances set out in Dutch civil law are useful, because they get the order of magnitude right.
Article 5:42 of the Dutch Civil Code:
- Trees: at least 2 metres from the boundary, measured from the centre of the base of the tree
- Shrubs and hedges: at least 0.5 metres from the boundary
Source: Wetboek+, art. 5:42 BW
But there are three important exceptions:
- A local bylaw or local custom may allow a smaller distance. Plenty of councils do exactly that. Check your local rules before you start digging.
- Your neighbour can give permission. Do put that in writing or in a message, because a verbal agreement disappears with the next occupant.
- Planting that does not rise above the boundary wall is allowed to stand closer.
Practical advice: planting a hedge right on the line, even though the council allows it? Pop round to the neighbours first. A hedge that gets clipped from both sides and that you have talked through together is a lot nicer than a hedge you walk past in a bad mood for fifteen years.
And look up as well as down. Before you put that spade in the ground:
- Where do the cables and services enter your house? Look at where the meter cupboard sits and where the connection comes in. Dig in that zone with care: spade upright, bit by bit, not blindly with an auger.
- How tall and wide will it be in 20 years? That is the size you should be planting for, not the size in the garden centre. A 3 metre birch turns into a 20 metre tree with roots reaching well into next door’s garden.
- Anything that runs? Bamboo, some poplars and Japanese knotweed do not belong in a normal garden without a root barrier. A root barrier at least 60 to 70 cm deep, with a lip above ground level, is not a luxury with bamboo.
- Drains and paving. Willow, poplar and ash go looking for water. Do not put them near your drain connection or right beside the drive.
Seven mistakes that finish off most autumn planting
1. Planting too deep. The big one. The root collar has to stay visible. Lay a batten across the hole and check before you backfill.
2. Letting bare roots dry out. Out of the box, into the hole. Not a quick coffee first with the roots sitting on the patio in the sun.
3. A narrow, smeared hole. A tight, deep hole with a glazed wall you have smoothed shut with the spade, especially on clay. Break the sides open.
4. Pruning wrongly at planting time. Bare root hedges and bare root shrubs get cut back (by about a third). The leading shoot of a tree you never cut off. You will never get a decent crown out of it again.
5. Tying the stake too high and leaving it on too long. Tie low, remove after two years.
6. Grass right up to the trunk. Grass is a ruthless competitor for water and nutrients, and the strimmer against the bark is the second biggest killer of young trees. Keep a clear or mulched circle at least 60 to 80 cm across.
7. Feeding in autumn. Do not. The plant is asleep and fresh nutrients can damage young roots. Wait until spring, and then use compost or an organic fertiliser.
Costs: where the difference sits
Quoting hard figures is tricky, because size, species and supplier make an enormous difference. But the ratio is stable, and that you can work with:
| Form of plant | Relative price | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Bare root, small size | Lowest | Hedge, native planting, fruit tree |
| Bare root, large size | Low to medium | Avenue tree, substantial hedge |
| Rootball | Medium to high | Evergreen hedge, large tree |
| Container | Highest | Single shrub, planting out of season |
For a 10 metre hedge, bare root will quickly come out at three to five times less than the same species in the same size out of a pot. On a 25 metre hedge that is the difference between a nice weekend job and an investment you need to sit down for.
Where you lose money instead of saving it:
- Buying too large a size. Big plants establish less well, need far more water for two years and after five years are often overtaken by the small size you could have put in beside them.
- Not ordering spares. Count on a few per cent losses. Buying extra in March means a different batch, a different size, a different colour, and in a hedge you see that immediately.
- Skimping on soil preparation. A bag of compost and an hour with the garden fork is the cheapest insurance there is.
- Backfilling with bought compost. Expensive and worse at the same time.
What you do the following spring
Planting in autumn does not mean job done and forgotten.
- March: walk the planting. Push against the plants with your hand: are they loose? Frost can have lifted them. Firm them back down and top up the soil if needed.
- April: check what is breaking into growth. If a bare root plant is still doing nothing in May, carefully scratch a bit of bark open with your fingernail. Green underneath = still alive, be patient. Brown and dry = dead, replace it.
- April/May: the first feed is fine now. Compost on top, or an organic fertiliser.
- May to September: watering, and properly. This is the season in which your autumn work either pays off or fails after all.
- For a hedge: clip twice a year for the first few years (around June and late August) to get it dense. Clip the sides slightly tapered: wider at the bottom than at the top. That keeps light on the lower part and it stays full right down to the ground.
Frequently asked questions
What is the very best month to plant a hedge?
November. The soil is still warm from summer, there is plenty of rain, and in most years there is no sustained frost yet. Deciduous hedging plants are available bare root at that point, which also makes it the cheapest month. If November does not work out, February to mid March is the second best window. Avoid the months with a risk of prolonged frost, because you cannot plant into frozen ground.
Can I plant in winter if it is not freezing?
Yes. As long as the ground is not frozen or soaking wet and compacted, December and January are perfectly fine for planting. Root growth is more or less at a standstill then, so the plant simply sits and waits until the soil life gets going again in February. That is no problem, with one caveat: give it extra attention with water in its first spring, because it has not made any roots yet.
What exactly is the difference between bare root and rootballed?
Bare root means the plant is supplied with no soil at all on the roots; it has been lifted from open ground and shaken out straight away. A rootballed plant comes with a ball of its own soil, wrapped in hessian and usually a thin mesh. Bare root is much cheaper and lighter, but only available during winter dormancy and extremely vulnerable to drying out. A rootball keeps the fine roots intact and is therefore the safer choice for large trees and for evergreens, which after all never go fully dormant.
Should I fill the planting hole with compost or bought topsoil?
No. Use the soil you dug out, improved with a little compost if you like. A hole full of rich compost acts like a bathtub: the roots stay inside that luxury zone and circle at the edge, and on clay the water simply sits in the hole. The aim is for the roots to head outwards, into the ordinary garden soil. What you should do is break up the sides and the base of the hole with a garden fork, so there is no hard shell around it.
How far from the boundary does a tree have to be?
That depends on where you live: the required distance is set by national or local rules and often varies by council and by the height of the plant. As a guide, the figures in Dutch civil law are practical: article 5:42 gives 2 metres for trees, measured from the centre of the base of the tree, and 0.5 metres for shrubs and hedges. A local bylaw or local custom can allow a smaller distance, and your neighbour can give permission. The distance requirement also does not apply to planting that does not rise above the boundary wall. So always check your local rules, and put any agreement with the neighbours in writing.
Do I always have to stake a new tree?
No, and often it is actually better not to. A trunk that is allowed to move in the wind builds a thicker, sturdier base. Stakes are needed for trees from around 2.5 to 3 metres, for trees with a large crown and on windy, exposed sites. Tie low in that case, at around a third of the trunk height, with a wide tie and no tension on it. And take the stakes out after two to three growing seasons, before the tie cuts into the bark.
My bare root plants have arrived and I cannot plant yet. Now what?
Heel them in. Dig a shallow trench in a sheltered spot, lay the plants in at an angle with the roots in it and shovel soil over the roots until they are completely covered. Firm lightly and water. They will easily bridge a few weeks of frost or bad weather like that. Never leave them lying with the roots exposed to the open air: a quarter of an hour of wind and sun already costs you a serious slice of your chances of establishment.
How much water does new planting need in the first year?
A good soaking straight after planting, even if it is raining, to settle the soil around the roots. In winter you generally need to add nothing, except for evergreens during a long dry frosty spell. From April it gets serious: better a large amount once a week than a little every day, because a small splash draws the roots upwards. For a young tree, 20 to 40 litres per watering is a good guideline, and you keep that up for at least two growing seasons.
Planting a tree or a hedge is one afternoon’s work, but the spot you choose is fixed for twenty years. Before you dig, you want to know how your garden is going to hang together: where the sun falls, where you want a view and where you want shelter, and what else still has to come. At Fred’s DIY Plans you will find complete working drawings for garden projects with dimensions and a materials list, so you get your patio, shed and planting working together once instead of moving them three times.
Do yourself a favour. Lay that batten across the planting hole before you backfill. That one three second move is the difference between a tree that is still going in five years and a tree you cannot make sense of.
Cheers, Fred Schouten, DIYer through and through.
PS: do actually set that reminder for the tree stake. “Loosen tree tie” two years from now. I once watched a beautiful lime tree strangle itself on its own tie, and that really is a waste of a tree you planted yourself.