the pine will outgrow the 7 ft wide spot pretty quickly. The cheapest container plants (at HD) may not be the best value. keep your recepit in a zip lock baggie, or scan it into your PC, they guarantee them for a year, but the recepit fades real fast. And since its guaranteed, I'd not spare the rod untangling the roots in the container.

I agree. Great advise on scanning the warranty slips from HD. I really need to start doing that. I did loose one baby blue eyes spruce, but didn't have the warranty tag -- duh! My loss.

So I'm looking at Forestfarm as a serious alternative to HD and the local nursery. I want to support to local guys, but simply cannoy add trees to a 3/4 acre lot from the local nursery at $200 (and up) per tree.

I did have good luck with the black hills spruces from HD ... but they really only sell BHS, blue spruce (too big) and austrian pines (boring, ugly? ... also large).

So I'm wondering if getting a 3' to 5' trees mail order is a wise thing or not. The prices shipped are in the $60 to $80 range per tree ... which is similar to HD and way cheaper than the nurseries here.

We can and do sometimes get snow as late at the 2nd week in May. Usually only 1 May snow storm, typically.

I bought 4 blue spruce trees for Christmas decorations (HD had them for $19 each for a 3-4' tree!!) ... and they are doing well ... and are in my raised beds, surrounded by mulch and compost. They seem happy to finish off the winter there.

So I am wondering if I should order now and add the new evergreens to the temporary holding spot, or if I should ask them to delay shipment till May sometime?

Advise needed / appreciated ... thanks!
Scott

I think if the nursery takes appropriate care when shipping trees that large, they shouldn't be any worse off than trees in the same size range you would buy locally. The worst thing that's happened to me when ordering larger trees by mail is that the shipping company damaged the box so badly that part of the tree became broken, but that's the exception not the norm.

If I was you, I'd put my preferred shipping date as the date you are prepared to go out and plant the trees in the ground and where the weather was appropriate as well. As you said it's early to mid May for you, so that's what I'd put down as my preferred shipping date. Most mail order nurseries ask for your preferred shipping date, only a few ship when it's best for them and not always best for you(usually because they are highly specialized, very small, or their climate demands shipping at certain times).

Thanks for the good advice!

to me mail order is best for obscure specialty type stuff. Thats when its worth it to pay for shipping and Im willing to risk buying something without seeing it. I wouldnt get anything common or prosaic via mail order. Rather drive somewhere I guess. But if stuff is really expensive locally then go for it.

When I look around on the internet ... I can tell you that almost anywhere is cheaper than Colorado ... way cheaper.

If I could even drive 1-2 hours and get a decent tree at a decent price, I would.

Variety out here is like vanilla ice cream. The few places offering a choice want $200 to $300 for a 3-4' tree. I'm just not interested at those prices.

If someone knows what I can get a 5-6' serbian for $100 in Colorado, please tell me ... I don't think it exists.

Well it seems like everyone is looking for a bargain out there, myself included. I have noticed a size able increase in the cost of conifers at my local nursery sources. A lot of that can be attributed to the high cost of doing business now. Increased transportation costs,$3.15 gasoline in Kansas City going to $4.00 a gal. this all filters down to increased overhead in doing business and the customer pays the freight so to say.

"If I could even drive 1-2 hours and get a decent tree at a decent price, I would".

Sounds good but how much does it cost to get there and back. You could do it two times if your conifer doesn't make it the first year and a refund is in order.

Just off the top of my head I know of no nursery/grower that sells a 5-6.ft Serbian for a $100.00. If you are looking to find conifers at a price affordable to you your are going to have to think smaller 1/3 gal. offerings. In the long run I think they make better plants but the downside is waiting 4-6 years for them to put on appreciable growth.

I would buck up and buy now. Get what you want because it is not going to get any cheaper. Usually a nursery will get 2-3 shipments a year, depending on their sales volume. You can bet on a price increase the next time around.

Dave

Why not consider other native conifers such as white fir, ponderosa pine, Douglas Fir, etc.? These should be readily available in CO. I really wish white fir were planted more often. Nice soft foliage with an amazing diversity of colors and forms available. Same with Douglas fir. Good luck.

Mainly because I'm looking for a smaller tree, meaning a more narrow form ... those are great trees, but giants.

Ponderosa is the only tree that is native to where I live.

The Douglas Firs are also huge ...

I know there could be some debate on how big a hoopsi, serbian or black hills spruce could get ... but they are not the giants.