Does it look like it was being kept in full shade?

Good morning! I don't know what that would look like, exactly. But here's a picture of it.

I will bet just about any form of currency you care to wager that it'll be fine.

These are weeds. Tgey grow anywhere. While things like mower blight, buck rubs, and napalm will cause angst over how the perfect shapewas destroyed, tgey are inlikely to cause lasting harm.

Plant it. Green end up. Or sideways. Folliw the instructions given and bare root it in full leaf. Forget to water it. It'll most likely survive.

And you are concermed about sun on a plant that WANTS as much sun as it can get?

I doubt it was grown in a greenhouse - most trees are not. And as noted, Amur maples are pretty tough customers :-) At most, you might see some signs of transplant shock but nothing the tree won't recover from quickly and easily. I'd just go ahead and plant it.

it NEVER hurts.. to put harden off a plant for a week or so .... avoid opening the box and running out and planting it ...

first.. where did it come from .. and compare to your location .. odds are.. its coming from a much warmer zone.. so harden it off ..

besides .. theoretically .... in our zone.. you could have frost or freeze.. for another week or two ... and though it might not kill it.. it wont do it any favors to lose all its leave right after a transplant ...

so put it on the north side of the house .. outside .. for a week.. a little sun any time other than the intense hours of afternoon.. is good enough ...

i agree its probably unkillable.. but why risk it ...

my only caveat .. is that it will probably become a hard tree to garden under in the decades to come.. so site it where you dont care about what you plant under it.. e.g. its aggressive roots would make it inconduscive to growing hosta under .. but there would be plenty of of things that will grow there ..

ken

The tree is coming from Peach Grove Nursery, in Martin, Tennessee.

Since, it's potted, there really is no particular rush to plant it. So, I'll do what you said Ken, and keep it on the North side for a while. Might as well. Thank you, Ken, and everyone as always, for responding.

Actually roots quickly grow to the sides of containers and start going in circles (or forming squares, as the case may be), so that plants bought in pots often need to be gotten out of them as soon as possible.

Funny that they sent you one with the top over near the side of the pot, usually it is thought that plants should be in the center of a container. And a plant top being over toward the side can carry an implication that the roots were already too big for that pot size when the plant was put in it.

Otherwise be aware that there is a history of 'Flame' being raised from seed, so that plants purchased under the name vary in character.

Thank you for that information. I will only harden it off, for a few days, or if I can find a way to block the afternoon sun from it, I'll plant it right away. Here is the Ebay auction it came from. Remember though, it came from an actual nursery. It's 3 years old and in a 4 and a 1/2 inch pot.

Auction

Actual nurseries frequently sell pot-bound plants.