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A UK garden in November
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The monthly read · November

What to plant in November

Bare bones and bulbs. The garden is down to its structure now — hedges, stems, paths, and whatever you were clever enough to plant for winter. It is also the one right month for tulips, and the best month of all for bare-root anything.

November · UK gardens

Four to plant in November

Bare-root stock and late bulbs — the cheapest and best-established plants you will ever buy.

  • Tulip 'Ballerina'
    Scent

    Tulip 'Ballerina'

    Tulipa

    Slim orange flames, faintly scented, and one of the few tulips that genuinely comes back for several years. Plant deep — at least 20cm — and it perennialises far better.

    AI-generated image, made with Google Gemini
  • Bare-root rose 'Munstead Wood'
    Scent

    Bare-root rose 'Munstead Wood'

    Rosa 'Ausbernard'

    The deepest velvet crimson, with old-fashioned scent that carries across the garden. Bare-root now costs half of a potted one in June and roots away over winter.

    AI-generated image, made with Google Gemini
  • Winter box
    Scent

    Winter box

    Sarcococca confusa

    Unremarkable glossy evergreen for eleven months, then tiny January flowers that scent an entire path. Plant it beside a door or a route you walk daily, never at the back.

    AI-generated image, made with Google Gemini
  • Amelanchier
    Statement

    Amelanchier

    Amelanchier lamarckii

    The best small tree for a normal garden: white blossom in April, berries in summer, and fiery leaves in October. Never gets big enough to be a problem.

    AI-generated image, made with Google Gemini

Garden ideas to nick this month

  • Trap the heat, not the cold

    Mulch while the soil is still warm

    A thick compost mulch now insulates roots through the worst of it and feeds the soil by spring. Wait until February and you are mostly just sealing the cold in.

    AI-generated image, made with Google Gemini

  • Twenty minutes, once a year

    Clean and sharpen the secateurs

    Wire wool, a drop of oil and a sharpening stone. Blunt blades crush stems instead of cutting them, and crushed stems are how disease gets into a plant.

    AI-generated image, made with Google Gemini

A garden to visit

Cambridge University Botanic Garden

Cambridge University Botanic Garden

The Winter Garden, coming into its own

Designed entirely around bark, stem and scent. In November you finally see why — the planting has nothing to hide behind and it is still, unmistakably, composed.
Photo by Brett A on Pexels

In the BeeWise app

This read appears in the app's Inspire tab, where each idea can go straight onto your Garden Jobs, matched to the plants you grow.

A plan for your own garden

BeeWise turns November's ideas into jobs for the plants you actually grow, in your local conditions.

For UK outdoor gardens · iPhone and Android