What temps are forecast for the time that you'll be gone? Short periods of cold usually won't hurt new buds opening this time of year. Of coarse if it got down into mid 20's for several hours, it could nip things a bit and cause them to start over.

It won't hurt to bring them in and put them in a sunny location if you have that. In your zone it shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks and outside temps will be high enough that you could put them out again.

Forecast has ~3 nights with 24-27 F for several hours each night. The plant is a new 1 gallon recently shipped from west coast so waking up earlier. My living room faces south and has lots of large windows so plenty of indirect light. I will bring the tree in door for the week while we are away.

Thanks you!

Vivian

I have never grown trees in pots, so I’m not sure. But it seems logical to me if you bring a tree indoors and set it in the sun (at probably 70 degrees), it would fully wake up and start leafing. Is that what you want?

+1 on GardenGals comment.

I have had them leaf out early many times. At first I brought them in at night and carted them back out in the morning, but that got to a bit of a PITA, so I left them in the garage and had absolutely no problems whatsoever.

It's just that it will be such a short time they would be indoors and just as short before temps will be favorable outside that it really isn't all that big of a deal either way.

Indoors sucks for trees.

A garage is going to be warmer than outside but not as dry as indoors. Trust me I have spent much time in garages laying in the pavement under cars thinking about that.

Thank you all for the advice. I did bring the tree indoor before leaving town on Wed. Heater is off so indoor temp likely will be around 50F. I just thought the tree needs some light for photosynthesis and I did not want to leave it outside due to the below freezing night temp. Glad to hear it will be ok to leave the leafed out tree in the dark for a few days.

Can't wait for spring to come. The small tree is ap. Japanese Princess. The early leaves are so beautiful.......

Japanese Princess must be an early leafer. I've got one in a container that has been in my shed all winter, temps usually in the 40s deg F. Sure enough, the buds have broken. It's near a window so I guess I'll leave it in protection until temps cooperate.

Agree on the beautiful early leaves, and a seedling from Mikawa Yatsubusa...one of my faves.

So far Japanese Princess seems to be the earliest leafer among my potted maples in garage. I only received her this winter from Lucile Whitman but already I fell in love with her. The small tree has a nice branch structure already. Mikawa Yatsubusa is one of my faves too. Its buds start to show so won't be long...

Spring has been late coming for us in Northern IL. But at least we can start gardening with conifers. I have a shipment coming from Western Evergreen next week.

Hope snow storm did not impact you this weekend. We are in northwest sub of Chicago and did not get any snow. Just cold.

Yeah this spring has definitely been slower than recent years.

I'm in the western part of the state. We ended up getting about 10" of wet nasty snow yesterday. I got an order from Western Evergreen last week and managed to get everything in the ground before the snow. Jason usually has very nice material. Happy planting!