If it was not subzero you may be in luck. I would plant it and wait till spring.

Ditto. Don't give up yet.

At some nursery I saw a few burlapped trees sitting under mounds of gravel. Your carpet and the like seem more comfortable at the least.

i have high hopes for it.. presuming no extended sun or heat.. warmed the cocoon and stimulated the roots to growth ... at the wrong time of year ...

but what i want to know.. is why you are going to replant it 2 feet from the house .... presuming you are putting it into the excavation ...

dormant trees .. being dormant.. can survive a lot of abuse.. IF they stay dormant .... its when they come in and out of dormancy.. that problems arise ... if in fact.. yours stayed completely dormant ... then i predict 90% to 100% success rate ...

if not.. then all we can do.. is wait and worry ...

soooo.. where is it being planted??

ken

ken:

We did get a stretch of 60 degree weather a week ago but we're back down to the 40s through the week. I'm going to take care of this tree ASAP, but the big question you brought up... where is the tree going?

This was a subject of debate on a thread here last fall. My LA said it was ok to plant where I planted it:

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Most people here agreed it was too close to the house. I had this grand vision of tons of trees on my property, but over the winter I took a Tree Tenders course and did a lot more reading. Summary - I wish I never hired the LA. I DO have to find a new location for this tree. I'll plant a shrub in that spot this spring.

Unfortunately, I'm tight for space. Here's what I'm looking at:

FRONT YARD:

It's only about 25' x 25'. I have a white oak that I planted last fall and two Xanthocyparis nootkatensis that I rescued from an abandoned nursery (still bound with string and overgrown with weeds) 3 years ago. I could probably get rid of one of those and plant the sweetbay in its place, but I don't have a home for the old one and limited time to dig it up and out.

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BACK YARD:

Here is the pic I took last fall where, at the time, I thought I could squeeze a b&b black gum in the back corner (at the advice of the LA). I've since come to my senses.

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My biggest mistake was listening to him on the black birch. It's not one of my favorite trees and it's too close to the garage. But I'm stuck with it at this point. Nothing will go where I had planned that black gum to go UNLESS I could possibly put the sweetbay THERE?

I do plan on picking up the black gum I tagged at the nursery last fall and planting it where the old 3' diameter hollowed out stump is, right in front of my patio. That's 20'+ away from the white oak and any other tree. I wish I could get rid of the black birch and just have the black gum and white oak as my big trees back there a little spaced out more.

Here is a layout I did in photoshop for my backyard:

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Is this enough info for anyone to make suggestions on where to put the sweetbay?

yep ... as soon as i hit the send button.... it all came back to mind ...

as to the temps ... its all about the temp in the rootball ... not the air temp ... and a big gob of earth will not thaw.. just from a one day temp spike ... usually, anyway ...

and i doubt we will figure that out ....

so just do what you have to do.. we can not give you an answer beyond that ...

perhaps prayer..

ken

Pass on the information about your Landscape Architect. Sadly, we don't teach them plant knowledge these days. Seriously. Very few get any sort of plant ID or plant systematics or even horticulture. I may have stated this already, but in grad school we did a project in AK with half LAs and half planners. Only one LA could walk somewhere and start IDing plants. One.

Nonetheless, agreed that it shouldn't be a problem with the magnolia.

AS to the drawing, is north up? Second, thank you for so much information. Usually we scream and claw for the tiniest scrap of useful info. Third, the area covered by the white oak isn't big enough. Increase it by 50%, or to the garage. Either way. As to the sweetbay, we need some cardinal direction on the map for anything else.

Dan

Dan:

For my drawing, UP, or looking at the garage from the patio, is actually SE. My house is the bottom left of that pic to the left of the patio.

My LA advised me on the spots for those trees I planted, noting to think in terms of a canopy and that it was the trunks that I'd be interested in. I REALLY wish I hadn't planted that black birch. For what it's worth, and you can see the big norway spruce to the right of the oak in my backyard, my neighbord has about 7 long-established trees in her backyard and another 5 in her front. Not much ground cover in either one and both areas are quite dark, but there is a hidden quality about both areas that I do like and they're conducive to bird/critter watching.

OMG.. you crack me up ... lol ... has anyone told you that you are an eternal optimist????

really???? a 'meadow' .... in a 40 by 40 foot yard .... lol ...

i wish you all the luck in the world... keep up God's work ...

absolutely stunning house ... your little castle.. or should i say.. english cottage ....

take care

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Haha, thanks Ken. That was shorthand for "mini-meadow" actually. :) The goal of my project is to incorporate a little bit of each native, natural habitat into my little square of earth - something the LA was on board with. I know, not much - and my wife thinks I'm completely losing my mind - but it's all we've got left. If I try my best and convince a few neighbors to do the same (native plants), then little by little, positive steps can be made. I'm also doing a lot of pro bono web work I do for various tree/conservation groups in my neighborhood. You gotta start somewhere, right?

o By the time the birch dies the oak will have swallowed it or cramped its style anyway. Hopefully it won't damage the structure.
o The tupelo and oak will fight for space, unfortunately the tupelo is to the shade side of the oak, and hopefully can compete for light with the oak and the neighbor's trees, and stay off your house in age if it lives that long.
o The sweetbay may last a few years in that corner but will likely get shaded out. Hopefully the decomposers are all done with the stump and will allow the tupelo to grow.
o You will be required to devote some hours to the pond, set some time aside just for that - you are going to have a regular cleaning task - needles, leaves, catkins, seeds...ugh; you'll need a skimmer for the top and something for the bottom. You can get plants in there for a while but they'll get shaded out in a few years. . If you are planning on fish in there it will work for a while, but the pond will get shaded out which will decrease the number of days they are happy.

That's a lot of stuff in that small space, good luck with it.

Dan

Thanks for all the input, everyone.

I think I'm going to go with the option of planting the sweetbay in the back corner where the tupelo was originally going to go (pic #3). At this point I'll take shade as the biggest hindrance over being too close to my house. We're getting hit with rain today, but I'll unwrap it later in the week, plant it, and hope for the best. I'll deal with the pond later - no fish, but hoping to attract frogs.

I'll really have to think about the tupelo. The stump is about 4' high and 3' wide. Last fall I pulled off all the english ivy it was buried under and I was surprised to find it hollow all the way down to the ground. My neighbors have been there 10 years and said the stump was there when they moved in. I wish I would have planted the tupelo in my front yard instead of planting another white oak there. I would love to put it where the stump is though.

I suspect your soil is too wet to be worked right now.

Dan

Well, I somehow got the tree in a wheelbarrow and took it to the back corner where I'll be planting it (yes, too wet today). I unwrapped it down to the canvas layer and it pretty much looks like the day I got it. I think it's going to make it.

One way to tell if your magnolia is alive or not. Just scrap the bark and see if it is still green inside the cambium, a tree's inner tissue. If it has brown or little green, chances are that its survival is minimal. However, if it green inside that is a good sign. Just replant and water accordingly. Remember people tend to overwater trees and plants. A good rule of thumb for watering a tree is 1 gallon per 1 caliper inch. Basically, if the tree is 1' around then apply just 1 gallon of water. Try this and hopefully this will get your tree going for good.

Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb

All green. I'll plant it this week. Thanks for the tip.

"A good rule of thumb for watering a tree is 1 gallon per 1 caliper inch. Basically, if the tree is 1' around then apply just 1 gallon of water."

Using such a generalized one-size-fits-all rule is counterproductive. As has been described in multiple thread on this forum, water according to soil moisture. Check soil moisture, at a depth of a few inches, before/during applying water until you are familiar with your specific conditions.

What brandon said.

Dan

And here, at least, watering when plants need it can often mean only watering a couple of times in August. The rest of the year, the rainfall is enough, and additional watering is overkill.

In the ground and fingers crossed.

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Much better spot ( would have moved a little more out of the picture but that is just a nit).. Good luck.

Your house is huge! Is that all one house? I have the tendency to plant too close together, too. I have a couple trees to relocate too, if they are to reach their full potential.

It's half of a twin, poaky.