If someone personally asked me that question I would say no. Wait until for sure the ground is thawed for the season. That is coming from a guy that lives in Texas though.

if fully dormant ... it should not be a big deal ....

its about a month early for my similar circs in MI ... but if you can dig the hole ... i dont see a problem ...

on reciept ... i would call them and tell them they shipped at least a month early ... and if there is any problem.. you will be asking for reshipping .. ask them to notate the file ...

back in the day.. i ordered a lot from stark and guerney.. and there was never a problem.. but that was a decade ago ... so i dont know the current business model.. if you get my drift ...

dormant is dormant.. and a zone appropriate plant.. should not care ... if you had planted it in fall ... it would be coping with the current weather regardless ...

now.. if its leafed out.. active rather than dormant.. you would be in trouble ...

mulch never hurt anything ... great idea ...

see link for planting primer ... and welcome to the forums .... including a location always help us to provide better info ...

ken

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

btw ... local nurseries.. are most likely receiving the same type of stock about now.. and potting them up for spring sale .... of course they probably have greenhouses ... to force early growth ...

but if your ground was frozen .. you could probably fill a pot with some good moist media ... and 'hold the plant over' ... until the soil was workable ...

in my MI ... a couple weeks either side of 4/1 ... would be perfect planting time ... so you arent that far off the mark.. other than frozen soil ...

and.. snow is not really an issue ... and i hope you have some protection from those rats with cotton tails ... hungry vermin in late winter might be hungry.. and appple is yummy ...

ken

ps: for all practical purposes..its march.. not feb... gotta be an optimist here.. lol ...

Thanks so much for the advice! It’s suppsed to be relatively warm until Friday when the trees arrive, so I’m going to plant them in the ground (assuming they’re fully dormant) and cross my fingers since we’re supposed to be going into a cold stretch. Good point about notifying them upon receipt about shipping before planting time here. I really appreciate your help! I think I got my name updated to include my location now, too.

And I like your way of thinking. I’d like to believe it is March too. That way only 2.5 more months until gardening time. This time of year is so gloomy. Cold, fog, and practically no snow!

If you can dig a hole (the ground isn't frozen) and they're dormant, the sooner you plant them the better, IMO. Dormant plants don't care if it's cold. I live in the mid-atlantic and have relatively mild winters, but my preferred (and most successful) planting time is very late fall or late winter/early spring.

^^ Exactly!! Bare root stock is always available in late winter. It is sold dormant and should be planted when dormant. If you can dig a planting hole, plant! The tree will be happier and safer in the ground than attempting to hold it successfully for a later plantng date and risk it emerging from dormancy too early.

LOL!! In a few hours it will be March!! And that means spring - the vernal equinox - is only a few weeks away.

Plant them, but also contact the nursery and let them know that sending trees to zone 5 in winter is truly an iffy proposition and if they don’t survive you expect the nursery to replace them. You won’t know what kind of temperatures they have been exposed to and for how long in shipping, so they may arrive with cold damage to the roots if they sat overnight in an unheated truck somewhere in subzero temperatures. Here I won’t be able to dig a hole for at least another month since our ground has been frozen solid at least a foot down since November.

Sam, based on the CO z5 and your description of coming cold, I'm thinking you're in Colorado. I'm a half hour north of Denver. My bare root and potted orders will start showing up in 2 weeks, so I don't think you're all that early. I try to time my planting here to take advantage of the heavy, wet snow we usually get in March and April. Since that is the bulk of our annual precip., combined with our ground not freezing some years and the fact it can get hot in early June, there's merit in planting early here. Did they show up yesterday and were you able to get them planted? If not, make sure the roots are moist and covered, then store them in an unheated garage until the soil isn't too muddy to plant.

Hi all! I did get the trees yesterday, and they actually looked really good from gurneys! Not large, but not tiny twigs either, and they had really great roots, which were nice and moist with shredded paper around them. They were completely dormant, with no signs of breaking dormancy yet. I did get them in the ground yesterday, put a layer of mulch around them, and watered them in. Hope they do ok with our major hard freeze tomorrow! at least there is a little snow cover for them now too. I figure their roots will prob be safer in the ground than in a pot in our garage, which still gets really cold. fingers crossed! Thanks for all the input. And treebarb, yes I am in Colorado. We must be pretty close, as I'm in Berthoud.