HEY Martha, I don't know about zone 5 babies BUT when I do summer seeds I wait until it cools down in the fall to transplant. I have successfully transplanted hocks, you just have to water them well until they get over the shock of transplanting. You might lose a few but you can always keep out a few just in case you need to re-plant them. I would wait until all the ones you mentioned are a few inches tall at least before I transplant. I have made the mistake of transplanting little ones too early and did not have much luck with it at all. You know we have hotter then Hades summers here, the best luck I had was putting them in a temp bed where they got afternoon heavy shade. IF you do not want to go that route the other way I did was put them in jiffy pots like someone else suggested and I kept them under a tree until I was ready to transplant. I made sure they got watered ever day morning and evening if they were droopy, again hotter then Hades here so they needed a lot of care. I don't know how your weather is up that way but if it is hot, hot, hot I would truly wait on planting out. I have transplanted a hollyhock that was about 6 inches tall with a lot of growth on it before BUT I had to baby it, that is the trick and making sure you DO NOT disturb that tap root, as long as you don't break it or damage it in anyway transplanting is not that hard. Still a little tricky BUT not impossible. If you can put them in jiffy pots OR make some paper pots I saw somewhere a girl was making square ones that look to be a good size that would be good for the hollyhocks because you could just put the whole kit and kaboodle in the ground when you plant them, ALSO if you don't want to do that then get some of those brown paper lunch bags put about 3 together, inside each other, turn down the top to make a rim and plant in those (instance paper pot no fuss method!) then when you plant IF you need to you can rip a whole in the bottom OR you can IF you are REALLY, REALLY, REALLY careful tear the whole 'pot' away and then plant. These are the easiest ways I know to not disturb a plant when transplanting and it gives them the best chance at living. :) Aqua ***Note for the paper lunch bag 'pots' if they are the thin, thin, thin ones I would use as many as I needed to make a stable pot.***

I may have my answer. A friend asked me if I planted in extremely wet soil. I did. It is very dry here, so I dig and amend a hole, fill it with water, insert plant into the pool and pull the dry soil around it. My friend claims our particular clay is easily amended with sand and organic matter, and even quite useful for conserving water during the inevitable stretch of 110 degree days, but it forms a milky paste in a small pool that attaches to roots and literally suffocates them. It doesn't matter how much sand or perlite is added the paste gets to the roots immediately if the plant is put in standing water. This doesn't necessarily explain why some survived and some didn't, but it could be that some were lucky and others unlucky as I pulled the dry soil around them. I did plant seven more yesterday using barely moistened soil then watering them in lightly and all seven looked fine this morning. I am tempted to plant a few more in the little pools to test this theory. I have more plants than I can grow. I don't know if anyone can confirm this solution, but it was telling that someone out here who's been raising a veggie garden for decades guessed exactly what I was doing wrong. I knew that wasn't the prescribed method for transplanting but it seemed to make sense out here and it sure made getting all the plants deep and level easy, which really helps in hour blazing summer.

Unfortunately beech is temperamental when it comes to transplanting. If you just want a forest tree, you can do nothing. It will probably survive as-is. This multi-trunks form is considered aesthetically undesirable and makes the tree more vulnerable to wind and ice storms, but barring human intervention or it being out-competed by other trees it will still likely outlive you. If you want a tree with good form and a degree of wind resistance, cut off all but one trunk. This is probably best done in the winter. Maybe clear away nearby weeds and mulch around it. competition is the thing most likely to kill this tree. You could try taking the extra trunks, using rooting hormone, and try to transplant them. You would probably fail, but it is worth a shot.

The damage weed and feed products cause to trees depends mostly on the tree itself and the amount of herbicide exposure. Trees that are shallowly rooted or young will suffer a great deal more damage than older trees with deep roots. Common symptoms include twisting or thickening of stems, narrowing or curling of leaves and calluses forming along exposed roots and stems. Extensive root damage caused by run-off may leave trees with less specific symptoms, especially if the herbicide isn't taken up into the foliage -- these trees may wilt due to a reduced ability to collect water and nutrients from the soil. Although tree death is a serious risk, it is not a guaranteed outcome.