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Autumn is a great time of year to plant bare root fruit trees. Bare root plants are seasonal so they are ready to be harvested and delivered from specialist nurseries as they become dormant. The bare root tree season runs from November until around April so you have plenty of time to start planting.
Managing Director of Hopes Grove Nurseries, Morris Hankinson has shared with Express.co.uk why now is the time to plant fruit trees, why they’re more affordable at this time of year and are better for the environment.
Hopes Grove Nurseries was established 27 years ago and grows approximately one million hedge plants in 50 acres of land in Tenterden, Kent.
The nursery also delivers fresh plants to thousands of customers across the UK.
Over the past year, they’ve experienced a surge in customers.
Morris said autumn is a great time to plant fruit trees because there is a wider choice of varieties and rootstocks available in bare root form.
The gardening expert said you can plant “all” varieties of fruit trees in their bare root forms at this time of year.
He said: “We’re just coming into the season now where you can buy every fruit tree you can imagine, whether it’s a cherry, plum, pear, medlar, quince…you name it!
“The same applies to all your soft fruit bushes like your currents and gooseberries and things like that. It’s proper open season really.”
If you’re looking to change up your garden and plant some new additions, choosing fruit bushes and trees could be a great way to add colour and enjoy fresh fruit in the summer.
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Morris also said your budget goes “so much further” when you plant bare root trees.
He explained: “If you want to stock your garden up and do some new projects, your budget goes so much further.
“They’re so environmentally friendly as well. They’re enjoying a proper resurgence at the moment.”
Britons are now approaching gardening in a more eco-friendly way with plants’ origins and the materials they use being at the forefront of their minds.
Morris said the “old-fashioned way” of planting fruit trees was to buy them potted up in July from garden centres.
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“It was very much the old-fashioned way of doing it – ‘why would you wait until November when you can go to a garden centre in July and buy it in a pot?’”, he said.
“But obviously sentiments have changed and they’re changing faster and faster as time goes by.
“Environmental benefits are number one – and quite rightly too.”
The bare root trees at Hopes Grove Nurseries either begin as cuttings or seeds sown in a field.
They then grow to become tough plants that are available when they’re dormant.
Morris added: “So there are no pots, there’s no compost, there’s no heat, there’s no polytunnels – which also means you get a nice tough, hardy plant because they’re grown completely outdoors.
“Sometimes you can go to a garden centre and buy a beautiful lavender or a beautiful red robin and it’s been grown inside.
“You put it out in the garden and get a hard frost and you think ‘what happened to that?’”
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