Should I plant in autumn or spring?

The traditional advice is that autumn planting is better, and on the right soil it clearly is. But a large proportion of British gardens sit on ground that is saturated from November to March, and on those sites autumn planting drowns plants that would have thrived if planted six months later.

Step by step

1. Ask what your ground does in winter.This is the question that overrides all the others. If water stands on it or it is saturated for months, plant in spring. A dormant plant with its roots in airless waterlogged soil for a whole winter is the commonest reason autumn planting fails.
2. Ask how hardy the plant is.Fully hardy deciduous plants take autumn planting in their stride. Anything tender or borderline should go in during spring so it has a full growing season to establish before its first winter.
3. Ask whether it is evergreen.Evergreens keep transpiring all winter while cold soil limits what the roots can take up, so a newly planted evergreen on an exposed site is at real risk of winter desiccation. Spring, or early autumn while the soil is still genuinely warm, suits them better than midwinter.
4. Ask whether you can water reliably.This is what autumn planting buys you: a plant with a season of root growth behind it needs far less watering in its first summer. If you cannot commit to watering a spring-planted specimen through a dry summer, autumn is the safer choice.
5. Check whether bare-root is an option.For trees, hedging, roses and fruit, bare-root stock in the dormant season is substantially cheaper, comes in a wider range, and establishes well. That alone often settles the timing.
6. Plant properly whichever you choose.A wide hole rather than a deep one, planted at the depth it grew, firmed in layers so it cannot rock, watered in thoroughly to settle the soil, and mulched clear of the stem. The season matters far less than getting these right.
7. Plan the aftercare for the season you chose.Autumn planting means checking for wind rock and frost lift through the winter. Spring planting means committing to watering through the first summer. Each has its own follow-up and neither is fit-and-forget.

Tips

• Early autumn, while the soil is still genuinely warm, is the best part of the autumn window — much better than midwinter planting into cold saturated ground.
• Never plant into frozen or waterlogged ground in either season. Heel the plant in somewhere sheltered and wait for conditions rather than forcing it.
• Bare-root plants must not dry out between arriving and being planted. Heel them into soil or damp compost immediately if you cannot plant the same day.
• Autumn-planted specimens need checking for wind rock and for frost lifting them over their first winter. Firm them back in whenever the ground has moved.
• Perennials divide and move most successfully in spring on heavy ground and in autumn on light ground, which is the same rule as everything else here.

Common mistakes

• Autumn planting into ground that waterlogs all winter — The roots sit in airless saturated soil for months at the temperature at which nothing recovers and rot organisms thrive. This is the single commonest cause of autumn planting failure and it has nothing to do with cold.
• Spring planting and then not watering — A spring-planted specimen has no established root system going into its first summer. Without consistent watering into the root ball it is far more likely to fail than an autumn-planted one.
• Planting too deep in either season — It is the most common planting error and it kills slowly. Set the plant at the depth it grew, with the graft union above soil level on grafted plants.

Alternatives

• Autumn planting: Warm soil and reliable rain mean roots grow through the winter while the top is dormant, so the plant meets its first summer already established and needs far less watering. The standard choice for bare-root trees, hedging, roses and fruit, and for hardy deciduous shrubs and perennials on soil that drains.
• Spring planting: The plant goes into warming soil and grows away immediately, with no wet winter to survive first. The right choice on heavy or wet ground, for tender and borderline-hardy plants, for evergreens on exposed sites, and where you can commit to watering through the first summer.
• Bare-root in the dormant season: Only available in the dormant season and much cheaper for trees, hedging and roses. Available in a wide range of sizes and varieties that never appear in containers. Must be planted while dormant and must not be allowed to dry out.
• Container-grown at any time: Can technically go in whenever the ground is workable, which makes summer planting possible. It is not preferable — a summer-planted container plant needs consistent watering for its whole first season and is more likely to fail than the same plant put in during autumn or spring.

Questions people ask