Regardless of company you choose to order from this is the time of year to do it. They will not ship your trees until you tell them when you want them. I would not wait, as fruit tree varieties disappear from the lists daily as they are sold out! Check out the following nurseries: Arboreum Company, Raintree, Cummins, One Green World. I have ordered from all of them with success. Arboreum is the best in my book. Hope this helps, Mrs. G

Definitely order as soon as possible. To get the best selection, I placed some of my orders last September for March/April delivery. Some places also reserve the larger grades for the earlier orders.

Thanks. I'd really love to order from Raintree as their website appears to have exactly what I want but when I add them to my cart I don't have the option to ship to the east coast. Are they west coast only?

Some of the other websites do not always list the type of rootstocks used.

Speedster, when you register (open an account) with Raintree, they will email you with shipping dates. Shipping dates used to be on the site I don't know why they are not there. I have 10 trees from Raintree and I'm in RI. Yes, they ship to the East coast. I am getting another tree from them this May. When you pay for your trees, there is always a box where you can send a message to Raintree. That is the place where I type in my delivery info. Hope this helps. Mrs. G

Thanks for the info Mrs G. I will try that!

For the best selection, order early. You might be able to get an early bird discount, too. However, even that is no guarantee of getting scarce or new items. I have ordered items in late summer for the following spring, only to have the order canceled come spring due to the company running out of stock. (I think some nurseries just start their shipping with southern orders, rather than giving any priority to ordering date.)

But also bear in mind that many nurseries have clearance sales in May. Last spring I didn't know where I would be from day to day, as my father was dying. In May and even early June, I believe, I finally was able to order a bunch of items on super clearance, including a number of excellent apple trees from Starks for under $10 apiece. Because we had a cool, wet spring it all worked out fine planting them in June. Successful planting and growing is somewhat weather dependent that late in the season, but most nurseries guarantee their stock for a year or more. That is something to keep in mind if money is more of an issue than time and you are planting common varieties.
Northwoodswis

Raintree is a great place to buy from. I've bought several trees from them over the years and they have been excellent. Grandpas orchard is another great source for fruit trees, I bought several from them last year and was very pleased. I had one minor mixup with my order and they stepped up and made it right, I will definitely buy from them again. They are in Michigan.

speedster1, have you looked into Stark Brothers nursery?

Dirtyguy- yes I did look into Starks. Great site but there were a few varieties that I wanted that they didn't sell and in some cases they didn't list what rootstock they were using so I felt it was just easier to buy from raintree.

Speaking of Raintree I did place my order. Spent about $275. only weird thing is that they sent a confirmation telling me that they will review my order and check their stock and then send me another email if anything Iv'e ordered is not in stock. Hopefully that is not the case and they can send my entire order.