No quality nursery would be shipping plants now. They'd likely freeze during transit. When you get them--in early spring--plant them in a sheltered spot until fall when they'll be a little bigger, then set them out, with some protection against varmints just for their first winter.

BTW, kerrias are extremely vigorous plants that sucker constantly and will spread as far as they can. I'd set them 8-10 feet apart at least--maybe more. No fertilizer needed.

agreed .. call the supplier and tell them to send them at the appropriate planting time ... or put them on notice that if they fail.. due to sending them now.. you expect them to be replaced ...

snow is irrelevant.. you dont mention temps ... and i surely dont know your zone ....

if they are sent.. pot them all into one pot of damp media ... and shove them in the garage ...i would call this.. HOLDING THEM OVER....

they should be dormant.. and they should be held dormant.. until proper planting time .... they are not houseplants .... they are fully cold hardy in my cold z5 ... there is no reason they shouldnt be able to take everything z7 might throw at them ...

i doubt they will ever need fert ...

and i have no clue what you mean by root barrier ....

ken

Thank you all for the comments. The supplier mailed these out already. According to them, it's better to plant them asap because the more time they have in ground, during dormancy, the better.

It does seem to me a bit risky to plant 4" shrubs in 15-30 F temperatures, with snow (especially with the deer, rabbits, cats outside). Maybe I should keep them indoors, in small pots, and put them out in March?

I heard these shrubs spread quickly, thus the root barrier, to prevent them from creeping into my neighbors yard. Is that being overly cautious?

I have a 4 ft fence, which deer jump over like nothing. The plan is to plant these along the fence to prevent them jumping a wider distance.

Pot them up but do not keep indoors - as Ken said, these are not houseplants :-) Store in a cool area (garage, shed, unheated basement) until they can be placed outside. I would still wait to plant out directly until they have developed some size to them.......maybe early fall.

gardenga148, how much sun would they need? what size pots should I get? 6 inches?

They need no sun while still dormant :-) Once they leaf out and can be placed outside, they can remain in light shade until planting time.

If you use a good, high quality and fast draining potting mix, a 6" pot is fine. But if you are using a standard commercial potting mix, I'd start smaller and pot up as necessary.

I also wouldn't use this supplier again since sending at this time is inappropriate due to your temperatures. Keep the documentation so if they fail you have it, and take photos of the plants when they arrive also. Next time before ordering, look the supplier up on Garden Watchdog to read reviews from other gardeners. You will avoid sending money to suppliers that aren't reliable. You can also leave reviews of your own once you have experience with particular suppliers.

I also have a bit of advice on using Houzz/Garden Web. When you crosspost to several forums as you have done here, it doesn't show up on the Garden Web forums for those of us who enter from the Garden Web side of things, a remnant of old programming. So those who come from the GW side, including many quite experienced shrub growers, aren't seeing this when they look at the shrub forum - it doesn't show up in the list of posts at all. You might want to go to the shrub forum using the green link and post just there. It will show up twice for those entering from the Houzz side, but at least everyone can see it.

Is your soil frozen and do they have leaves? If not, I would plant them outside in the ground ASAP before they start leafing out indoors. Water enough to settle the soil and mulch them well. Then I would put an arch of chicken wire over the whole row to protect them from deer and rabbits. After the first season, you will have to decide if you want to protect them or let them take their chances next winter. If they have leafed out, I would put them on a wheeled cart that you can pull outside on warm days and pull inside to a bright area whenever it will be below freezing such as night and cold days. It will be inconvenient but will save you the hassle of having to harden them off in spring and will help prevent the etiolated growth that will most likely happen indoors without grow lights, even in a sunny area.

IME two 5' fences a few feet apart is a better deer deterrent than any plant. Or I was fairly successful with posts and a random zigzag of clear high test fishing line at several levels. They found it difficult to see well and couldn't figure out how to get through it. A double fence has a similar effect since they can't determine a clear landing. They don't have good 3D vision, so judging distance is difficult for them. Deer will eat anything if they are hungry enough IME if it isn't protected and you have a herd. Sometimes just making your plants more difficult to access than the neighbors' is enough. There are also sprays, both commercial and homemade that can discourage deer foraging. Especially if used early in the season when fawns are learning what tastes good, it can help encourage them to look elsewhere, but it does need to be reapplied after it rains.

Thank you again. Leaves have been cleared from the soil, but the temperatures can go down to 20 F or less, and we are expecting another round of snow (NY).

From the picture, there are some tiny leaves. Hopefully this winter will pass soon and I can plant them in a few weeks. These will be going along the road, outside our 4 ft fence. Town has codes regarding fencing, so I don't think chicken wire and fishing lines are an option. I am hoping these will grow along the existing 4 ft fence, and create a depth that will prevent the deers from hopping. That is if they survive to mature....

I have been using liquid fence. Seems to help, but it's hard to reapply after every snow/rain. So the deers do jump the fence on occasion and graze in my yard, generally making a mess.

Put the second fence inside the current fence. It may keep the deer out, though it won't help the Kerria.

It's WAY too early to plant in zone 7NY. The ground will still freeze and thaw. It can snow till March. That company shouldn't have sent those plants, especially already leafed out (!), this early. And deer do eat kerria.

What Babs said.

Receiving snow is not the same thing at all as soil freezing......snow is really an insulator. For ground soil to freeze, you need an extended period of time with below freezing air temps, usually several days or more of temps in the mid to low 20's. It is also not all that common for a zone 7 soil to freeze to any measurable extent anyway. In zone 7 in my area, you can plant pretty much at any time of the winter, provided the plant is sufficiently hardy.

Personally, with a plant as winter hardy as kerria, I would plant as soon as the soil is workable, if it is not already. And kerria is typically listed as "seldom severely damaged" by deer, although I would protect any newly planted shrubs as a matter of course.

With all due respect for your infinite expertise, Gardengal, New York is not the Pacific Northwest. New plants like the OP has will not do well if planted outdoors now.

With all due respect susanzone 5, a zone 7 is just the same wrt to winter cold temperatures in NY or WA. Or anywhere else with that zonal designation. As is ground freezing. It is just not a common or routine occurrence to any significant degree in ANY zone 7!

Fully frost hardy plants - and even more so, one with a z4 hardiness rating - can be planted any time the soil is workable. It is not the cold that is restrictive but rather the soil conditions at planting time.

I still disagree. Same zone numbers are different in different parts of the country. Zones have to do with temperature hardiness. The ground is frozen here, temps go up and down, from above and below freezing, everyday, ground goes through freeze-thaw cycles. There is not always snow cover. It is too early to plant something with new leaves and roots in NY.

"Same zone numbers are different in different parts of the country. Zones have to do with temperature hardiness."

No, they are not. Otherwise plants would be sold with hardiness zones listed that are location specific - eg. a zone 7 NY or a zone 7 TX. All a hardiness zone represents is the average minimum winter low calculated over an extended period of time, usually 30 years or more. So a zone 7 in NY is expected to have an average minimum winter cold the same as a zone 7 anywhere else in the country.

And a zone 7 seldom goes through any significant freeze/thaw cycles because it seldom gets cold enough for a long enough period of time for the soil to freeze to any measurable depth. It could happen and likely did during a couple of polar vortex winters but it is by no means a routine occurrence.

It may very well be too early to plant in your zone 5 NY location, but very likely perfectly fine to plant something as hardy as kerria in a zone 7.

Gardengal said "All a hardiness zone represents is the average minimum winter low calculated over an extended period of time,"

That's exactly what I said. BUT hardiness zone numbers do not take into consideration the other conditions of an area like rainfall amounts, winds, soil types, humidity, freeze/thaw/heave cycles, snowfall, sunshine, sun position during seasons, cloudiness, and other non-temperature conditions.

So zone 7 in NY can be different than zone 7 in Arizona, for example.