Wintry weather, although unpleasant at times, has certain advantages. Most importantly, it provides rain here, and snow in the mountains for water reserves.
Gardening would be very different with any less. Also, cool weather initiates dormancy for most plant species, giving them a time for rest prior to spring.
This is what makes bare root season possible.
Bare root stock is exactly what it sounds like. It is available for sale without the soil that it grew in. Some comes with an individual bag of moist sawdust around its otherwise bare roots.
Most merely rests with its otherwise exposed roots in damp sand at nurseries until purchase. Because it is so portable, much is available by mail order, or online purchase.
Bare root stock becomes available now because this is when it is dormant. It comes into nurseries as readily as Christmas trees relinquish their space.
Because it is dormant, it is unaware of what is happening to it. Dormancy works like an anesthetic for major surgery. Ideally, bare root stock awakens in its new gardens without any idea how it arrived there.
There are several advantages to bare root stock. It is much less expensive than canned, or potted nursery stock. It is less cumbersome to bring home from nurseries.
Because its roots were never confined, they disperse readily into surrounding soil. For some types of plants, more varieties are available bare root. Several plants are only available as such.
Roses and fruit trees are the most popular of bare root plants. More cultivars of roses are available now than at any other time of year. Fruit trees include primarily stone fruits and pome fruits. Stone fruits include apricot, cherry, plum, prune, nectarine and peach as well as almond.
Pome fruits include apple, pear, crabapple and Asian pear as well as quince.
Cane berries, including blackberry and raspberry, are also available with bare root stock. So are perennial fruit and vegetables like strawberry, rhubarb, artichoke and asparagus.
A few deciduous but fruitless shrubs, trees, vines or perennials are sometimes available. These might include lilac, forsythia, clematis, wisteria, astilbe and deciduous magnolias. Grapevines and nut trees are also available.
Forsythia
This may seem to be unseasonable for now. Forsythia, Forsythia X intermedia, does not bloom until early spring. However, this is the time to plant it as bare root stock.
It is one of only a few fruitless ornamental species that is available as such. New specimens will not bloom much for spring. They grow through summer, though, to bloom for the next spring.
The famously bright yellow flowers of forsythia are small but very abundant. They bloom on bare stems before their deciduous foliage regenerates. The simple paired leaves are about two or three inches long.
Mature specimens mostly do not grow more than 10 feet tall unless partly shaded. Most branches arch upward and outward from their root bases.
Pruning should involve the removal of deteriorating older canes, to favor younger canes.
Complete removal at their base promotes more vigorous new basal growth. Pruning can happen after bloom rather than before. Pruning of the exterior compromises the naturally outwardly flaring form.
Complete coppicing eliminates all bloom for the following season.
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