Autumn and spring are the optimum time for planting though garden centres do most of their business in the summer months. Plants are best established when going into or coming out of dormancy. The soil is still warm in autumn or warming up in spring and there is (generally) plenty of moisture from the sky.

 I do buy plants in pots but bare root is as good if not better because the roots aren't potbound. And the plants tend to be healthier and hardier from being grown in the ground as nature intended.

 On the table at the top is an Epemedium. I was given several clumps from a patch that needed to be reduced. On the left and right Geranium phaeum and G. macrorhizum. I ordered three of the former and the latter was sent by the seller as a bonus. The earthy clump at the bottom is one of five Pulmonaria officinalis. The seller apologised for them being so muddy but from the mud they came and to the mud they will return! Actually it never occurred to me this rather dainty plant has such a rooty rootball.

 Lifting plants from the soil and selling them bare root was the old fashioned way before growing in plastic pots became a thing. It's probably enjoying something of a revival among small scale propagators trading online to save costs on shipping and packaging (the many uses of a shoebox!). 

 Useful way of tracking down slightly obscure plants. For example various cultivars of Lungwort are easy to find in garden centres etc. but the wild form P. officinalis is hard to come by. Likewise numerous cultivars of Columbine are widely available but not the pink form of A. vulgare. Accordingly I ordered 6 which were described as 'plug plants'. Actually bare root is a better description; plug plants tend to be smaller and younger, not much larger than seedlings in some cases. Being uprooted for a day or two in transit is not a problem as long as there is some soil or compost and wrapping around the roots to keep them moist as seen here.