Those look fine. The canes are good and green and not wrinkled. Just prune off anything that's damaged or unhealthy looking. I don't know exactly where you are but it's too soon to plant here. The ground is still frozen. A rule of thumb would be to plant when the forsythia bloom in your area. That usually means the soil has thawed and warmed to a sufficient temperature for growth to happen. For me that's usually mid-April weather permitting. Although lately the weather has that all screwed up, lol. Yes, you can pot them temporarily. If you have a garage keep them there. If you have to keep them inside put them under lights if you can. Any fluorescent light will do. Either way keep a close watch on watering. You do not want them to dry out. Pot them with good potting soil in pots that have good drainage. I wouldn't suggest fertilizer until they are planted. You don't want them putting on a ton of new growth until you can get them outside.

There's mail order and then there's mail order...I must say that the plants I received from Porterhowse Farms, Coenosium Gardens and Fantastic Plants all looked good and were healthy when they arrived; they were well packed and there was no damage in shipping. None of them were root bound, either. I'm sorry Girard's didn't do as well for you - I can't believe they actually chose an already damaged Ginkgo biloba and then shipped it to you!- but at least they are going to replace the trees, hopefully with better specimens. Like Matt, I am happy to see that your trees from Klehm's (except for the Picea pungens,) look quite nice, as I am expecting an order from them, too. I hope that they will replace your 'Gebelle's Golden Spring' without any fuss. Holly

Hi Cole!! You know I was kidding about the 'hate you' thing, right? LOL... I really hate the fact that **I** don't live there! I find that a lot of info on how to plant bareroot DL's is spread all over the place, so I thought I would post my personal experience here so others could see. This is my first order of bare root DL's, so the learning curve has been steep. Thankfully, there are some really knowledgable people here and they help alot. I just keep asking questions!! I just got a great post on another thread (Aren't I Pretty Daylilies - Questions?) from tsbccowboy. He gave me a link to his pictures when he got his order, so I will pass it on here. Happy Gardening!!!!!!

Hi Trilliumway, Rick here. Here are 3 great places: The Country Garden, 3712 Consaul Rd., Schenectady, NY, near Mohawk Commons Glenville Gardens, 20 Pine St., Glenville, NY 518-393-0905 GlenvilleGardens@aol.com (e-mail for plant list) Glenbrook Farm, Glen NY See website at www.glenbrookplants.com Country Garden has 75-100 or so varieties, very nice plants, good prices, lots of other plants too. Normal business hours for a garden center. Glenville Gardens is the small operation of a hosta fanatic, Dave Jennings. I've been buying from him for 5 years or so. He carries around 150 for sale and has around 400 growing on his property. He is open by appointment in the evenings or when he has Open Houses on weekends. Well worth the trip to see his garden. You can see what the plants look like when they mature. E-mail him for more info. Glenville is across the river from Schenectady. Glenbrook Farm is a large mail-order hosta nursery near Canajoharie and the Mohawk River. There website has a link on the Hosta Library webpage. www.glenbrookplants.com You would also need to contact them for an appointment to go in person instead of mail-order, but they welcome and enjoy customers at the farm, which is way out in the country. The owner gave me an extended tour when I showed some interest and knowledge of hosta. They have over 500 varities for sale on the website. I'll plug a few mail-order favorites while I'm at it. I've gotten good plants from White Oak as you did; also from Kuk's Forest, the Hosta Farm, Walden West, Wade Gardens, and New Hampshire Hosta. Enjoy your garden! Mine is starting to look great this year, now that I've had 5-6 years in the same shady backyard.