dormant .... with 6 to 8 to 10 weeks before the heat of july hits ....

if not.. then pot them up.. and hold until proper dormant planting time in october in our zone ...

its still early enough that you MIGHT get away with planting a leafed out tree ... but it might have a hard time in july/august.. for most peeps..

though you personally .. probably can mulch and water it PROPERLY.. and scrape by ...

i dont really consider you a neophyte.. and expect that you can get away with it all.. WITH PROPER AFTERCARE ...

the peeps who fail.. are the ones who go out in late may .. hit the bigboxstore ... plant a leafed tree.. and never water it again.. those are the ones that fail wildly ...

as you are working in april.. your have a wide window of opportunity ...

ken

ps: mailing a leafed out tree.. is sometimes a big enough shock .. in and of itself .... to cause failure [not that you will ever know that that was the cause] .... your questions was specifically about mail order..

It depends on the nursery. Most would ship into Zone 5 between late March and early May with dormant to mostly dormant, bare root stock. The "average" time is probably right about now, mid-April.

The range for me has been between about the 2nd week in March (Burpee, they're idiots, I made them send me new ones because it was at a month too early) to as late as around the 15th of May (Raintree did this last year, they were running really behind).

I have bare rooted trees here in zone 7 in mid-late may proceeded by one of the hottest summers on record with success. Proper mulch and watering will take care of it. Like Ken said though, you want to bare root dormant plants, not plants that are leafed out. The one failure I had last year was a bare root prunus planted the end of may that was leafed out all the way to the top of the 3 foot stick. It died back about half way down but then put on about 2.5 feet of growth from new buds that formed after the leafed out stuff died.

You in particular should be fine for a while yet with planting anything

Where do you get your mail order trees from?

Sorry to veer off path, but I'm assuming - Ken - the same rule goes for transplanting - better when it's dormant? I have to move my Hakuro Nishiki Willow by a couple feet as I'm modifying my landscaping up front.

These will be 1 gal. pots. I was under the impression I plant them now but the nursery is stating that they won't ship until mid-May to ensure they leaf out properly. This is confusing to me but I wanted to get some feedback (these are coming from OH).

I paid half price for trees at naturehills because they had lowered their prices due to it being so late in planting season. Their regular prices are absurdly high. I can get a 5 gallon container maple/oak from the local nursery for cheaper than a smaller bare root of the same species from nature hills. Arbor day foundation has a decent bare root stock. I have planted 10 bare root trees and 12 bare root bushes from them this spring already. Everything has already leafed out that I planted 2 weeks ago and doing great.

I would ask for late April early May Whaas

when i suggest dormancy .. that is my attempt to reach for 100% success .... obviously ... it can be done otherwise.. though your odds start to go down as the heat of summer approaches ...

who are you getting them from in OH??? send me an email thru my members page ...

on some plants .. ID is requisite by the seller ... so they delay .... i mean if you had 10,000 pots of JMap's.. they do all look the same w/o leaves .... lol ..

and what trees.. specifically are we talking about.. and are you contemplating full sun????

posting this in the tree forum and only discussing trees is very general.. do you have a specific tree in mind ... because conifers are a included in your general question.. and i know you are working with those ....

since conifers are trees .. there is no reason all your learning about conifers.. should not translate directly to trees in general .... there really arent a different set of rules for each.. and in theory.. a vast majority of conifers do come with leaves ....

why are you thinking differently about trees ????

if the seller is providing a full warranty ... and the seller wishes to delay .. then it is left to relying on the seller .... at some level ...

in our zone 5 .. MOST SPRINGS .. mid may .. though a bit late .. should still give you 6 weeks.. before the real heat of summer ... and you should be able to succeed ... its just that sometimes the heat hits early ... blah.. blah ... and at that point.. if in full sun.. you might want to rig up some shade ....

and of course.. there is a big difference between a one foot tree in a one gal ... and a 4 foot tree in one gal ... the bigger the tree.. the bigger the stresses.. and the worse the odds get ... heck a one footer can go in a rose cone [or a cardboard box open at the top all summer .. to provide shade] .. and you cant fail ...

so your generalized question is leading to frustration because i am not sure what you want to know ...

just understand that thru shipping.. planting.. perhaps root surgery .. that the impaired root system MUST be able to provide the requisite water to maintain the leaves on the tree.. and if.. for whatever reason.. the delay in the root system ability to provide the water.. to hold the leaves.. fails.. then the leaves will fail ... though many plants.. but for the transplant .... can releaf ....

it would be no different.. but for the transplant.. than if a hard frost or freeze .. hit a tree after leaf out.. and damaged all the leaves ...

ken

My trees are coming next week, but they're bareroot. I prefer to plant bareroot since you can see the roots and head off any problems that can be hidden by a pot. But you should be fine to plant in May especially if it is as wet as it was last year. I planted a leafed out plum in mid-May last year and had to wash all the soil off it since the roots were so tangled. It had been in that pot way too long. Anyway, it was fine since it rained almost every other day after that.