How to Plant a Shrub, a tea break tutorial with me, Alan Titchmarsh.

Hello and welcome to the first in a brand new Gardner's World magazine podcast series,

exploring some of the key issues that incense and inspire

gardeners. These are handy expert guides to some of the topics and techniques. The team at

Gardner's World are asked about time and time again. Cuttings, tomatoes, pests, pests,

pests, blooming bl pests, pests, pests,

blooming blight, compostic to name but a few.

In this exclusive series,

I'm going to talk about some of these big questions and share with you my practical, no-nonsense solution.

I'll lead you, not down the garden path,

but to a more successful, hopefully less stressful approach to tackling common garden woes and getting the garden of your dreams.

I want to help you to have more time enjoying the fruits and flowers of your labours, and less time actually laboring.

Ah! Oh! Ah, autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, as John Keats so memorably described it for gardeners.

The poet could also have added the season to plant shrubs. No, it doesn't quite scan so well, does it really, not quite so romantic as mellow fruitfulness. But you know,

since way back when gardeners have planted deciduous shrubs and trees, those are the ones that

lose their leaves in winter, when they were dormant.

So it sort of minimised any ill effects of being moved.

And in the UK, this generally means between November and March.

If they're transplanted in spring and summer when they're in full leaf,

plants are far more likely to suffer a shock to their system. They get dehydrated and most likely die. But back then, before the 1960s and the arrival of container grown stock, container grown plants, most, if not all, shrubs were sold bare-root.

So what does bear root mean? Well, it means they're dug up from nursery rows and things like roses.

We're talking deciduous shrubs here, those that lose their leaves, rather than evergreens,

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