Tex,
I tried fall plantings of bare roots for the first time a couple of years ago. Naturally, I mounded the plants with a thick layer of soil to protect them over the winter. When I first uncovered the plants the next spring I was amazed at how many healthy bud shoots there were. But despite how careful I tried to be, they kept breaking off as I removed the soil around them, and I ended up with spindly plants. I'm going to try planting a few again this fall, but I'm going to mound them first with a thick internal layer of peat moss, and an outer layer of soil and mulch. Hopefully that will give them the protection they need, but the peat moss that insulates the new bud shoots should be much easier to remove without breaking the new shoots off.
