When is the best time to plant trees?

At this time of year, our garden teams are busy preparing our clients’ gardens for the colder months.  Bareroot and rootballed trees and shrubs can only be planted during the months of November until April.  Planting trees is one of our main Autumn/Winter projects for the teams.  Each specimen has to be chosen and tagged from one of our many suppliers across the UK.  Instead of stakes and braces, we use underground anchor systems to enable them to be securely planted which improves the overall aesthetic. 

Why plant trees in Autumn

There are several reasons why tree and shrub planting is best done during Autumn-

• Cost | Trees and shrubs bought as bare root or “rootballed” often have a lower cost to them as they are field grown and need a lot less care and nurture as they develop. 
• Root growth |  Warm and moist soil is the ideal scenario and gives roots time to establish before the trees open their new leaves.
• Moisture |  Autumn has more rainfall and dew, so additional watering is less essential.  
• Water loss |  Lower temperatures reduce water loss from the trees and the roots are far less likely to dry out prior to planting. 
• A good head start | Trees planted in the Autumn will have a great headstart over trees planted in early spring the following year. This is because they have already put their roots down and will focus on growing whereas trees planted in spring will concentrate the growing season on putting roots down and will delay active top-growth until the following growing season. 

With the weather being damper this year, this means that the soil in Autumn has practically perfect conditions; warm, moist and most importantly easy to dig.

Not only that, trees planted in Autumn will be allowed to gently establish their root systems before the onset of the harshest winter months. This will then kickstart the trees into life for the following growing season. 

This is therefore an excellent time to make planned changes to your garden layout, create new and interesting areas, have a complete garden re-design or even finally plant those longed for and coveted specimen shrubs and trees. 

Read our article: When is the best time of year to have a garden landscaped?

If you are looking at planting trees and shrubs and would like us to help you with your garden project, please do not hesitate to contact us.