Bareroot is getting harder to find, for many reasons. Garden centres will rarely have bareroot stock, but you might find some B&B at this time of year. So you tend to be stuck with mail order. Shipping can add to the cost and it may not be worth it for a single plant.

I believe Hamamelis are more commonly lifted as a rootball because they don't like being bare-rooted.

Here is a link that might be useful: Weasdale

Thanks, Shrubs n Bulbs, this does look like a useful nursery. Wonder how many trees I could fit in my back yard?

I don't know how far away you are from the Centre of the UK, or even where that is, but the best garden centre I have come across on my UK travels for bare root plants, and much much more, is the Bridgemere GC near Stoke on Trent. It has a good selection of hamamelis.
Brian

Here is a link that might be useful: Bridgemere - Hamamelis etc.

Thanks, Brian2CV, this looks like a great day out - I do occasionally go to S on T for potting supplies, so will put it on my favourites list. Roll on Spring!

Bridgemere is huge! Take the family and call it a day out while you browse the trees ;) Strangely enough one of my favourite little garden centres was full of bare-root trees yesterday, but no Hamamelis :(

Are you sure Bridgemere has bare rooted plants? Over the years i have had some very good bare rooted trees from them- I always think they establish better than container grown.
Last winter when i wanted to buy a cherry for my lower boundary i rang them up to enquire about varieties. I was told that they no longer do any bare rooted. So ring up, it may save you a journey.

I would not expect hamamelis to be bare root, from anywhere, unless you can get a freshly lifted field grown plant which I don't think anyone does now. Generally I would only go for bare root hedgeing, and even then it is largely a matter of convenience, although if you have a long length to plant then costs get rather high with potted plants.
Brian

I have always preferred to have bare rooted trees such as specimum cherries, malus etc. i think they have a much superior root system than pot grown stock. I would never dream of planting pot grown roses, mine have always been bare rooted.
Pot grown plants were brought in for the convenience of the nurserymen, so they could sell all the year round. I remember as a teenager sending off for Hellebores and other perennials that were lifted out of the open ground. I reckon they would beat any modern pot grown plants for size and quality.
I cannot emphasise that enough bare rooted planted in winter will always beat pot grown. Who would want to buy potted apples, pears, blackcurreant etc? Surely only the novice gardener or those who want instant results.

In my very limited experience of planting trees, bare root and potted, I can't say either is preferable to the other. All have grown satisfactorily, although potted trees in growth need more looking after.
Pot grown may be for the convenience of year round selling; but also year round buying. We no longer have to spend the winter huddled round the fire reading catalogues, we can buy, and plant most of the year.
We should distinguish between bare root from a garden centre, and freshly lifted from a growing nursery. The latter are great if you can get them, and only want to plant when they are dormant. Many bare root stocks in garden centres have been bare root for weeks or months, with little or no after care. The few roses I have bought potted have all been bare root plants that have only been in the pot a matter of months.
For fruit trees, and shrubs, I would agree in preferring freshly lifted bare root stocks, but then we often prune heavily when planting to improve the structure or prevent or improve fruiting. Not necessarily the same treatment I would give many ornamental trees and shrubs, when we want to see what we are buying is a good shape, healthy, and hopefully true to type.
Brian

I have bought potted roses in the past during the growing season only to have the soil all fall off the root during planting because it was bare-root stock potted up for sale, ie, not established in the pot. It took them years to get going after the set-back - bare roots in May/June!

Well I have only bought roses from a rose specialist. There is a very good nursery just down the road from here - David Austin and there is another one in Cheshire somewhere. Fruit I was sending off to a place in the Isle Of Wight. Basically I was buying off the people who grew them. That was the case with Bridgemere. They were selling trees that they were lifting from their own fields I believe and you could go down and examine them for shape etc.( the roots were wrapped up in bags).
A bare rooted tree can have a much more extensive root system than a pot grown specimum and growing in a field is more natural than the confined spaces of a pot. The roots are active quickly and by the summer will have extended and make the tree less susceptible to drought. In the end I had to buy a pot grown cherry and while on holiday i was quite worried I would lose it.
I have planted thousands of native trees over the years and all have been bare rooted.I was amazed at how extensive the root systems were on oaks from a good tree nursery. We could not water them afterwards of course. Losses were very low. I am sure that if they had been pot grown most would have died without any aftercare.

Fryer's is one good rose grower in Cheshire but I know there is another that I haven't been to. You can visit Fryer's growing fields in summer and check out the plants, then either take home a potted one or order them bareroot for later.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fryer's Rose Centre

The one i was thinking of was C and K. Jones at Tarvin

Here is a link that might be useful: C and K.Jones

The "potted" rose did come from a specialist rose grower - but I suspect it's common practice to sell on winter stock during spring/summer.

I've been to David Austin, fab show gardens, well worth a visit at the height of the rose season.