It’s time to get Bare Rooted!
26th June 2023
Customers please note that the bare rooted season has finished for 2023. We look forward to bringing you a great selection of bare rooted plants in 2024.
Winter is one of our our favourite times of year, because while other nurseries slow down, we get geared up for the bare rooted plant season! Update 19th July 2023: This week we’ve added a range of bare rooted fruit trees, in addition to bare rooted English Box, roses and ornamental trees. Bare rooted fruit trees are available online now and will be in store on the 22nd July.
Bare rooting is where plants are sold out of a pot, with their roots bare and free of soil. This is made possible by the cool weather and the fact that many plants are semi-dormant in winter and are happy to be moved around and stored out of a pot. You might also hear bare rooted plants referred to as field dug.
We love bare rooting! That’s because bare rooted plants become 25 – 75% cheaper at this time of year, without the associated cost of pots, soil, transport and storage. Click here to learn more about bare rooted plants and how to plant them.
When are bare rooted plants for sale in Melbourne?
The exact start of the bare rooted plant season varies slightly from year to year in Melbourne and Victoria, and comes earlier than warmer states such as New South Wales. That’s because it requires a continuous period of cold weather to take the plants into dormancy, ready to be transported without soil. Usually after the monarch’s Birthday Weekend (King or Queen) in the second week of June is where you’ll start seeing bare rooted plants appearing for sale. The fullest range is available in July. The bare rooted season wraps up when spring arrives, by which time the plants should be tucked up into nice beds of soil, ready to burst into life and get growing with the warmer weather. This year our first selection of bare rooted plants will be on display at our Campbellfield nursery from Saturday 1st of July 2023. This includes bare rooted roses, bare rooted trees and bare rooted English Box.Which plants can be bare rooted?
Bare Rooted ENGLISH BOX
English Box is Melbourne’s favourite small formal hedge, and in the bare rooted season it’s always our top seller! If you want to put in a box hedge, which requires planting about 5 English Box plants per metre, bare rooted season is a great time to do it due to the cost savings per plant.
To kick off the season we will be featuring a “Jumbo Bare Rooted English Box” size, equivalent to a 10″ Pot size English Box. It’s twice the size of an 8″ Pot of English Box, and half the price.
Bare Rooted ROSES are now available online. Click here to view.
Roses are another top seller during the bare rooted season, as they are available at 25 – 50% off the normal price. For this reason it’s a perfect time to buy your roses or put in a whole rose garden.
This year we will be offering Standard (ball-on-a-stick style) Bare Rooted Roses in dozens of colours. There is a large but limited quantity of each variety, so we suggest you order early to avoid disappointment.
Bare rooted roses are available online NOW and arrive in store Saturday 1st of July 2023, 2500 of them! See the varieties here.
Bare Rooted FRUIT TREES
The bare rooted season is a good time to get discounted fruit trees. So far this season we have a range of popular apples, pears, apricots and plums available online now, and will be in store on the 22nd July. Again, these are around half the price that you would buy fruit trees of this size in other seasons. Bare rooted fruit trees are easier fit into your car, move into place and plant. This makes it a good time to put in a mini orchard (or a maxi orchard, why not). Don’t forget that to produce good fruit, or any fruit at all, many fruit trees need to be planted near a different variety of the same type of tree, called a pollinator. Click on the trees you’re interested in below to see more info on each, including pollination information. Where you see the word “self-pollinating” it means that tree takes care of itself and doesn’t need to be planted near a different variety. However, these self-fertile or self-pollinating varieties do tend to produce better fruit when planted in pairs or near other varieties of the same type of tree.Bare Rooted ORNAMENTAL FEATURE TREES
The bare rooted season is a fantastic time to get cut price ornamental and feature trees. Most trees that are deciduous can be bare rooted, and you can expect a saving of 50 to 75%. Favourites from past years include ornamental pears, plums and cherries, plus elms, ashes, robinia, maples and more. Bare rooted trees are available online and in store now, and new items will be added throughout the season.
This is a good time to buy trees if you are planning to do an avenue planting along a driveway, create a screen along a fence or property line or if you have a large property where you require bulk trees. Large bare rooted plants are easier to move into place and plant as you don’t have to lug them around with a big heavy pot of soil attached. We also wrap our bare rooted plants and trees with potting mix instead of sawdust, so that you get something useful to mix in with your home soil and improve it a little at the time of planting.
What do I need to know about planting bare rooted plants and trees?
Chris has been selling bare rooted plants and trees for over 30 years, and when the season comes around he uses them to a customer’s advantage in his garden designs. Here’s a video of Chris live on Facebook discussing the history & benefits of bare root plants.
Check out our fact sheet on Bare Rooted (Field Dug) plants & trees to learn more about the benefits of using and planting bare rooted plants.
We’ll also be publishing guides on:
- How to plant bare rooted roses
- How to plant bare rooted trees
- Planting bare rooted English Box
- Planting bare rooted Weeping Cherry Trees