Yikes! didn't want to drown them, but they seemed dry to me... I did take them out of the water, shook off the excess and wrapped the roots up in plastic bags...it's supposed to stop snowing late tonight, hopefully the soil will dry out a bit so i can plant tomorrow. I thought about heeling them into my nursery bed, but they're calling for a low of 20 tonight, and they've all broken bud. THey're from Gurney's, and the trees look really nice. Don't want to plant them in their permanent spot because it's been snowing/raining for 5 days straight, and i just hate the idea of working such wet soil....they're going into one end of the garden i broke sod on last year, and i wanted to do a bit of ammending, too. I live on a glacial sand moraine, my next-door neighbor is a gravel pit, excessively well-drained is an understatement. MAN oh man am I glad I didn't order the other 10 trees yet!!! THanks!

No, they should be fine- two weeks might be too much.

I use wire fencing to keep critters away from certain plants. I collect throwaway rolls of wire fencing with a 2 x 4 inch grid. I like it a little rusty, because it's nearly invisible in the garden. I cut pieces, usually about 2 feet high, and encircle the plants to keep out critters like woodchucks. Woodchucks can dig under and climb over a fence that high, except that I cut the fencing so that pokey wire ends stick out of the top and bottom. They are very sharp, so nothing has tried to climb over it. I have to watch out not to skewer myself in the garden, and it's probably not the best method to use if you have little children running around. Maybe something like that would work around your apple tree?

We did the same thing and received our Arbor Day trees about 2 weeks ago. They were not large enough to be consider trees, medium size weeds would be a better description. In the instructions received with the trees, it recommended that the trees be potted and maintained in pots for a year or so, before planting them in the yard. Or until they were of a size you would buy in a nursery. Since it is recommended to not plant trees in any thing but the dirt from the hole they will be planted in, We went into the back of our lot and filled 10 - one gallon pots with dirt. We then planted one tree per pot. Like other plants waiting to be planted, their home for the next couple of years will be out front porch. This has an advantage over putting them in the yard. We have a lot of wild life in our yard, deer rabbits, squirrels, and etc. Keeping the small trees on our porch will protect them from deer, rabbits, and other small animals and discourage the squirrels We live east of Raleigh and rarely experience 0 temperatures, Rarely do we get snow and if we do it last not more than a day. Those in colder ares may need to grow them in a small tree house or a hot bed.