What to Plant in November

By November the garden looks like it's closing down — but the soil is still warm from summer, the rain does your watering for you, and some of the most rewarding planting of the whole year happens exactly now. Get these jobs done this month and next spring largely takes care of itself.

Tulips: November is their month

While daffodils and crocuses prefer to be planted in September and October, tulips are traditionally held back until November on purpose. Cooler soil reduces the risk of tulip fire, a fungal disease that persists in warm, damp conditions. Plant bulbs at two to three times their own depth — deeper is better than shallower — pointy end up, in free-draining soil or deep pots. For a spectacular container, layer early, mid and late varieties in a bulb lasagne.

Garlic: catch the last window

Autumn-planted garlic still goes in this month, and it actually wants the cold: most varieties need one to two months below about 10°C to split into fat, well-formed bulbs. Break a head into cloves and plant each one 3–5 cm deep and 15 cm apart in your sunniest, best-drained bed. In very heavy, wet soil, start cloves in module trays in a cold frame and plant out in late winter.

Broad beans and hardy peas

Hardy broad bean varieties sown in November overwinter as sturdy little plants and crop weeks ahead of spring sowings — often shrugging off blackfly in the process, since they flower before aphid numbers peak. Sow 5 cm deep in a sunny, sheltered spot with good drainage. Round-seeded hardy peas can be sown the same way for an early picking. In cold or mouse-plagued gardens, sow both in pots under cover instead and plant out in spring.

Bare-root season begins

From November to March, nurseries sell trees, roses, hedging and fruit bushes bare-root — dug up while dormant and sold without a pot. Bare-root plants are dramatically cheaper than containerised ones, establish faster, and the choice of varieties is far wider. Plant them any time the ground isn't frozen or waterlogged: dig a wide (not deep) hole, keep the graft union or old soil mark at ground level, firm in well and water. If plants arrive before you're ready, heel them into a spare corner of soil.

Fruit to plant now

• Bare-root apples, pears, plums and cherries — stake young trees against winter gales.
• Raspberry canes, currants and gooseberries — cut newly planted raspberry canes down to about 25 cm.
• Rhubarb crowns — plant with the buds just proud of the soil surface, in rich, moist ground.

Under cover: winter salads and greens

In a greenhouse, cold frame or on a bright windowsill you can still sow winter lettuce, lamb's lettuce (corn salad), mizuna, rocket and spinach. Growth is slow but steady, and a single autumn sowing of cut-and-come-again leaves can feed you right through to spring. Outdoors, firm in spring cabbages planted earlier in autumn and net them against pigeons.

Colour and indoor cheer

There's still time to plant winter pansies, violas, wallflowers and bellis for colour through the cold months — the earlier in November, the better they establish. Indoors, pot up amaryllis (Hippeastrum) bulbs and prepared hyacinths now for flowers around Christmas and the New Year: an amaryllis planted in early November typically blooms in six to eight weeks.

Sweet peas and hardy annuals

Sow sweet peas in deep pots or root trainers in a cold frame or cool greenhouse this month. Autumn-sown plants build strong roots over winter and flower earlier and more generously than spring sowings. Hardy annuals like calendula and cornflowers can be treated the same way.

Tip: get bare-root orders in early. The best varieties of roses and fruit trees sell out fast at the start of the season, and planting in November — while the soil still holds summer warmth — beats planting into the cold mud of January.

Warning: never plant into frozen or waterlogged ground. Bulbs rot and roots die in cold, airless soil. If conditions turn against you, wait — a bare-root tree heeled in, or tulips planted in December, will still do far better than anything forced into unworkable soil.

Wondering whether that leafless bare-root whip you've been sent is really the apple variety on the label — or what the self-sown seedling in your border will become? Photograph it with PlantMe and let the app identify it, then track each new planting with care reminders through its first winter.