didnt i refer you to foxwillow in another post??? .. if so.. get there first.. and budget a couple conifers to star in your future scape ... they will be expensive.. but they will make an immediate impact ... and dont forget.. you can look at conifers in winter .... so there is no reason to wait until summer to go to this nursery ... as for trees ... i find that 2 to 5 footers ... max.. transport easier [presuming you are a one man work force] ... plant easier .. recover faster.. get established faster.. and will outgrow something twice as big [and 4 times as expensive] within 5 years .. IMHO ... planting in your z5 chicago .. should be around 4/1 ... giving your trees 6 to 8 weeks before the real heat of summer hits ... your trees should be fully dormant .. and no matter which type you get.. i would bare root them at the size i suggest.. and plant them in native soil ... [with special rules for bad clay] ... i am not in your BANG FOR THE BUCK club ... i want a tree that is easy to deal with and easy to grow.. all factors become increasingly complicated.. the bigger your bang is ... and.. as to your dream for that upnorth feel .. that cracks me up ... but you better have a ten year plan for that look.. or a multimillion dollar budget ... below are some pics of what took 10 years in my former horse pasture[not counting the giant trees] ... and all but one of the conifers were under 2 foot when planted ... and the trees 4 to 6 foot bare root ... its great that you have a long term goal of that upnorth feel ... but please put it in the proper decade long perspective ... good luck ken that redbud was 4 feet tall 10 years ago

When would be a good time to get the trees and shrubs planted this year? I was thinking of having the plant material bought by the end of Augustor beginning of september and having it laid out in the area by the end of September to mark the spots to plant the treee/shrubs in and then have it planted by the middle of October. Does this sound like a good plan or should I wait for it to get colder before I plant the trees/shrubs?

Thank-you all for the warm welcome! I love my little piece of Maine. lindalana, those pink plants are old azaleas that don't get the light they would like to have, so are very sprawling. I trimmed the left one up when I did some cleaning in the bed Wednesday PM in preparation for planting day yesterday. The one on the right is gone, but I do have an old Bleeding Heart that peeks through. This is that bed this AM in the rain - The 'multi-unit' birdhouse is temporarily on top of the granite birdbath. The white stones that are sitting on the stone wall for now are pieces of white and rose quartz from a mine in Albany, Maine, where we had a camp when I was growing up. They'd been buried back in the bed, and I'll decide what to do with them. I re-edged the sod in front that bed to give me a border to plant some of the hosta, so I could get them in the ground for now. I planted the JMs approx. 10 years ago, and they have FLOURISHED! I have more at various spots in the yard and they all do well here. This pic was taken this AM of a front border, and you see the JMs there left of center. There is a hidden pathway to the left of the JMs, and granite steps that go down to my 'puppy pen' in a lower part of the yard. I have always had Brittanys, and the current three are rescues, and any future ones will be. They have doggie doors to get into their 60 x 80 part of the yard, which is hidden behind 6 ft cedar fence. To show how well the JMs do, this was 7/16/16, when I was planting hosta in the shed garden. The JM on the right has grown so much that you cannot see any of those hosta, unless you crawl in under the JM now.I had a week's vacation at that time, and it was SO hot that this was my setup -

I generally use buy it now or make an offer if the item has a reasonable price these days. Once someone has bid on an item the Buy It Now feature ends. If there are no bids I will put in an early low bid. If there are already bids in I do nothing. I wait until the end of the auction and bid at the last minute(s). Heck I used to bid in the last 20 seconds if the item was running hot. I always know what I am willing to pay, factoring in the cost of shipping. That is my bid. Sometimes I will bid a few cents higher. I never bid in round dollars. Always add some odd cents. That could mean the difference between losing and winning. Heck I used to bid in the last 20 seconds. But never over what the item was worth to me. Set your price and stick to it.