What to plant in November (UK)
November looks like the month the garden shuts down — but it's secretly one of the best planting months of the year. It's the classic month for tulips, the start of bare-root season, and your last chance to sneak in garlic and broad beans. Cold hands, big payoff.
🌷 Tulips — finally
If you've been sitting on bags of tulip bulbs since October, this is their moment. Tulips are traditionally planted in November on purpose: colder soil kills off the spores of tulip fire, the fungal disease that ruins them. Plant deep — a full 15–20cm, deeper than feels right — pointy end up, in sun and sharp drainage. Deep planting also makes them far more likely to come back year after year.
For the full rundown of which bulb goes in when (and why the answers differ), see our guide to when to plant spring bulbs.
🌳 Bare-root season begins
From November to March, trees, hedging, roses and soft fruit are sold "bare-root" — dug up dormant, no pot, no compost. They're roughly half the price of container plants and usually establish better, because they were grown in open ground rather than a pot. November is the best month of the whole window: the soil is still relatively warm, so roots settle in before deep winter.
- Fruit — raspberry canes, currants, gooseberries, apple and pear trees, rhubarb crowns.
- Roses — bare-root roses planted now flower properly in their first summer.
- Hedging — hawthorn, beech and hornbeam whips cost pennies each bare-root.
The only rule: plant them within a day or two of arrival, and never let the roots dry out in between.
Veg still worth planting
- Garlic — still fine in November; it gets the winter chill it needs either way. In heavy, wet soil, start cloves in module trays and plant out in spring.
- Broad beans — 'Aquadulce Claudia' sown in early November overwinters happily in milder areas; in cold spots, sow in pots in a cold frame instead.
- Peas for shoots — a tray of peas on a windowsill gives you pea shoots for winter salads in three weeks.
One more job: plant next year's spring
Wallflowers, sweet williams and forget-me-nots can still go in during early November for a spring display, and any spring bulbs you find lurking in the shed are better in the ground late than never — bulbs don't keep.
A planting calendar that thinks ahead 🌷
GROW tells you what to plant every month for your garden and your postcode — including the jobs like tulips and bare-root fruit that future-you will be grateful for. Join the waitlist to try it.
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