If there are NO signs of buds swelling, put it in your shed and plant it when your soil is workable. Did the garden center have it outside?

tj

Hi Tj. There is no sign of bud swelling on the plant. The garden center have them in on the greenhouse/display center where you can walk around to look at the plant displays.

So its alright to put it in my shed even though its freezing in there? Because I noticed the water in my bucket is frozen solid. Also, I have the plant inside the house for 2 days now at 65F beside a south facing wall.

Thanks again.

I would keep it as cold as possible without the soil in the pot freezing solid. You can wrap it in bubble wrap (just the container) or with layers of newspapers to help insulate.

As soon as your soil is workable - not frozen or saturated with rain/run-off - plant it. You don't need to wait for last frost for planting hardy trees and shrubs.

Put it in the coolest possible area that will not allow the roots to freeze. Maybe try the shed with insulation attached to the pot.

Did the vendor have them sitting outside, in the winter weather? If so the tree may have been killed or damaged before you bought it - Japanese maples in pots may lose roots at temperatures as high as 20 degrees F. or so.

Enough time at 65 degrees F. or warmer and your tree may start to bud out and grow. Well before you intend to plant it outside.

Okay i'll put it in the basement walkout and cover it with cardboards, newspapers and blankets. They did not have it outside its in they're display area. Actually they don't have any plants outside this time of the year. When I bought this plant its actually 10C and something like that for the past 2 weeks the lady there said to plant it right away. That was before we got the snow storm and weather started to get in -10 and -18 at night.

Sorry for the question, but what will happen to the plant if it bud out and leaf out indoors let say until mid april and then plant it outside? Thanks again.

How warm does your basement walkout get? I'd still put it in the shed to keep it dormant with the pot wrapped. Be sure to water very sparingly. My soil here can freeze 2 feet down and I have JMs planted in it. It does matter which variety you have, however, but then if it can't take having its roots frozen, you might as well find out now. I'm sure your soil can freeze as deep as mine.

Open the doors on the shed on warm days so it doesn't get too warm in there.

tj

A plant in an above ground pot freezing up like a brick is not the same as the ground freezing deeply.

Just to clarify, ground soil freezing is not at all the same as containerized roots being exposed to freezing temps. Even frozen, ground soil seldom reaches the damaging temps a container is exposed to - it actually acts as an insulator to some degree. Containers do not have this insulating benefit and being fully exposed to the ambient air temperature - often far colder than any frozen soil - puts the root system at risk. Containerized JM's can be damaged at temperatures as high as 25F.

btw, it really doesn't matter what cultivar you have - virtually all are grafted to species JM root stock, straight Acer palmatum, so roots are equally sensitive to cold. The hardiness of the grafted top growth does vary, however.

Hi guys. I'll just update regarding my emerald lace. So, I decided to just keep it indoor untill all dangers of freeze has passed. As i'm afraid it will die if kept on my shed or on the basement walkout. As it happens we suddenly have a warm break and then for the past 2 days were back on -11 with wind chill of -19.

So far it's doing really great..