you are way over analyzing this.. and reacting too emotionally.. which i expect from you.. and your beloved trees ... first off.. they are recent transplants.. they wont care.. they are NOT fully estblished.. just dig out an extra 6 to 12 inces from what you planted ... but most of all.. you know all about aftercare now.. and that would be the next 3 pages of this reply.. which i can skip ... secondly.. do it as soon as the ground thaws ... some 6 to 8 weeks prior to leaf budding.. which is how you planted most of these.. so again .... you know how to do it all .. in fact.. i would bare root them.. if they were planted bare root ... the real key.. is to do it at root growing time.. w/o the leaves to stress the plant .. you know all about this.. so why do i keep typing.. you should be well into your learning curve.. to get beyond 95% of the worry aspect of this.. and simply plan how to do it ... i dont know all about your root theories.. and how confined they may be.. roots go enormous distances laterally .. some suggest 2 to 3 times the height of the tree ... and your adding 10 feet is not really going to change the potential for well head problems down the line.. but again.. i doubt you will ever really see a problem.. except in the worst of cases ... just dont worry about that ... just make you plan.. and do it.. in my z5 MI ... its usually 4/1 ... with planting complete by 4/15.. pushing it to 5/1 ... with leafing usually between 5/15 and 6/1 ... so thats the 6 week window.. and maybe 8.. if you can get out earlier in march ... the only real key.. is doing it dormant ... oh.. and for you.. the watering freak .. lol ... watering deeply at planting .... and good mulch.. you MIGHT NOT HAVE TO WATER AGAIN... until mid june.. when the soil temps actually start rising.. so dont get carried away with deep frequent waterings in early spring ... and if you cant find mulch in early april.. dont worry about that ... the soil will naturally stay very damp... so when you can find the mulch.. just do it then.. just dont worry about it ... [and dont forget to disconnect and empty your hose each night ... in case of deep freezes at night ...] GOOD LUCK!!!!! ken

FWIW, IF the Chinese Pistache are the "Keith Davey" selection, I would probable keep them in your local. Otherwise get what you paid for. Was this a "landscaper"? Allot of people come here with problems due to improper planting, and/or rootbound container trees. Were your trees planted from containers (probable so considering it mid-summer in Texas. If so there is almost certainly root problems that need to be addressed for longer term survival. Arktrees

Hey yellow thumb, where do you put your Michelia Alba in the winter? In a sunny room??? Do you have to watch for spider mites? I hear they love that plant. I will give you my address if you don't have it. How is the jade doing? So good to see you. You have to make the time. You are so missed here and have so much to offer along with your beautiful plants. As for your trees, if you don't mind them slowing down or loosing their rich green color, those temps will be fine as long as you know you watch your watering and I already know you use very ood mixes. In fact, it's much better than being in a dry heated house this early...Just make sure to acclimate them indoors if that is what you plan to do. Are you going to put them in a heated home in a sunny window, or a cool place? If a cool place you will not have to acclimate them...

Don't get me wrong-I myself have long participated in reforesting of our city following the elm event. Of course there's still some great streets and neighborhoods-even whole communities. What I am saying though is that in the aggregate, summing the whole kit and kaboodle up, we have a lesser resource today than we did yesteryear. For one example, even in my city the forester or others like to tout the fact that each year, we plant more trees than we remove. Yes, of course we do, I say, but the new trees are almost all going into new streets, new subdivisions that didn't even exist back whenever the comparative year was. If one was to somehow mount a camera over a city, perfectly stationary, and take time-lapse photos of the older parts of town, they're in a shambles so far as tree cover compared to where they were years ago, before all the elms died, before all the big old silver maples started falling apart, etc. I'm sure it seems overly bleak how I worded that post, but I'm certain there's a kernel of truth to it, even as I and you folks and a bunch of others go on with our daily lives, much of which involves trees and other greenery. I'm not pointing my finger at anyone or anything...just telling it like it is, as I see it. And one other facet: The power companies, long having spent considerable dollars on line clearance, so we can all plug in our toasters, has finally prevailed on urban forestry managers all across the nation to plant little mini-trees under power lines. Now from that one single perspective, I get it. But from every other perspective, it's been a disaster for the look, feel, and design elements of our city streets. Does anyone really get anything from a street lined with 'Ivory Silk' tree lilacs, themselves spaced far and wide? They will never coalesce, they will never create a canopy, they will never do any of the key things I listed above that street trees can and should be doing. This as much as anything has diminished the value of our urban forests. I once put this idea down as one for further discussion at the arborist's meetings. Well-and this has happened a lot-they took me up on it and this subject was one of the main ones at the following year's conference. I didn't get to go to that one but from what I heard, there was much scowling and wailing and gnashing of teeth at this talk and the idea behind it. It was actively rejected by the majority of city foresters and others in attendance. That's how far things have fallen-we can't even talk about it!