As long as the next several weeks show no major cold snaps forecast I would say you are fine in zone 6. In my climate I can prune apples most weekends in the winter, and I am usually chipping away at it over the whole winter (the job is about 1/2 done for me now). We did get a little cold snap recently but the 10-day low now is 31F and I will probably get some pruning done this weekend. If anything below 10F is forecast in the long range I will not be pruning. Scott

"If the ground isn't frozen below the snow, I think Drew is probably right," I had to quote that! :) You mention the dead of winter, and I agree, but spring is 4 weeks away, and the gentlemen mentions picking them up in 3 weeks. So it will be one week away from spring. I planted mine in zone 6A on March 7th 2013, last frost was April 29th, and it was a very hard frost, my tropicals got caught outside and I had to remove all the foliage, none of it survived. My cacti though were fine! Trees were coming out of dormancy on March 7th, they had flower buds on them. All the buds fell off, they went back into dormancy, They were coming from California btw (and not 200 miles away, 3000 miles away). They all grew like crazy last summer. They came back out of dormancy fine. If Oldryder is in zone 6 or higher, he would be planting them March 13th, a week after I planted mine last year. Not the dead of winter but the start of spring. Plant them. Call you extention office and ask, they will tell you to plant them, but call anyway. Just to give you an idea how well mine did, I cut them to knee height. One only threw a low bud just above the rootstock. I had to re-train it as a new central leader. By the end of the first year that new central leader was over 4 feet tall. It's not even one year in the ground yet. Oh I summer pruned the new leader twice and formed scaffolds, that yes, reach 4 feet tall.

Well your trees will be fine. If you have a wheel barrel and they will all fit, you could keep them in the garage slanted almost horizontal. Cover roots with potting soil or sand. Keep damp, or moist not wet or dry. They should remain in dormancy. If potted inside they might start growing. Potted in the garage, they might stay in dormancy, but the vertical angle stimulates them to grow. Put them in the ground as soon as you can. When temps stay above 28 degrees, that is a good time. Next year you could try Bay Laurel Nursery. You would get them the first week in March, and have lesser of a time to heel them. If at all? They have all the Dave Wilson stuff too! Raintree though is a better option. I ordered 2 blueberry bushes and one blackberry from Bay Laurel. On the order you check when you want them. the 1st week of March is the lastest delivery date, which i checked. i will pot them up till time to plant. Keep them inside under lights. They will actually get a head start on the season.

I'd imagine it won't affect leaf buds this early on, but would the blooms be toast? ===>>> if a dormant plant comes active.. and then is hit with a freeze [we arent talking frost here] ... man you guys ought to live in the great white north... lol... then all active buds can be lost.. depending on the depth and duration of the cold ... up here.. we pray they stay fully dormant late into spring ... many plants ... trees.. shrubs... etc.. can rebud.. and releaf at least once ... and sometimes twice ... i like to say.. they have a sense of huor about the first time.. but really get pissed off with the second insult in a given season .... most conifers though e.g. .. can not... so if you kill those buds.. kapout ... [canadian pronunciation.. lol] .. you lose ... ergo.. ipso presto ... your worries about flower and seed is kinda like coming at it from the wrong direction... you better hope your trees live.. let alone bloom and seed ... i have seen bud damage at 31 degrees... and as long as i live.. i have never seen one freakin degree after dormancy broke ... and i have seen plants.. continue to leaf out.. like nothing happened.. and then die a month later .... and all i could attribute it to was the freeze ... unless i misunderstand your situation... you better start holding your breath.. if your plants broke dormancy .... ken ps: if they started flowering.. they broke dormancy ...