oh ok. what about ones that dont have any new growth yet? can we keep them bare root?

No, pot them up as well. And plant them out as soon as your soil is workable. They are not frost sensitive.

Hope they are varieties that are sufficiently hardy for your zone and growing conditions. Walmart is not know for its horticultural expertise :-)

If they don't show any signs of growth, then wet the medium the plants are in. Usually some peat or shredded newspaper. Water very lightly, perhaps sprinkle some water off your hand. More if it's new medium. Store it in a plastic bag in a refrigerator. This would reproduce the method use to store them commercially. If you have apple seedlings and apples in the refrigerator the apples will cause them to break dormancy.

If they have been stored or offered for sale inside the store, the they have likely already broken dormancy even if no obvious signs of growth are apparent. Pot 'em up!!

now that you mention it, most do have buds even if not opened. gotta pot em all i guess!

and we did research which varieties do well up here, he saw them and thats why he got them. so even if they have leaves we can plant them out? after hardening off?

plant them out while its still frosting i mean

If your soil isn't frozen I would plant the dormant ones out now....leave the ones with leaves in a pot in the house for another month.

We are also in 3b and I always plant out on (or slightly before) the May long weekend (May 24th-ish). I've planted shrubs and trees weeks earlier and they have been fine. It's only the flowers on the fruit trees that are affected by the late frosts and yours won't have yet.

A picture might help determine the best course of action. Another option if you have it is pot them, but keep them somewhere cold that wont freeze hard to slow them down like an unheated garage and take them outside when chances of very hard freezes has past. 6-8 weeks in a house which is typically fairly low light is a long time, then you have to deal with acclimation to sun and temperature and you cannot plant them until chances of hard frost past.

gotta pot em all i guess!

==>>> thats the safest way ... but they dont have to be singly potted ... just jam then all in one pot ... perhaps no bigger than the box they came in ..

listen to me.. he didnt invest a thousand dollars in these.. so no matter what happens.. you will learn something .. so just learn ..

basically you are just 'holding them over' ... not potting for the season ...

one thing that significantly slow growth.. is cold ... short of frost/freeze of course .... i would try to get them into the garage.. as soon as you can.. to put them in slo motion .. an attached garage is at least 2 or 3 zones warmer than outside.. especially if you can not open the door for a few weeks ... there used to be time where my cars didnt see the garage for a 4 to 6 weeks in spring.. based on all the plants i had in there ...

another alternative might be a colder basement ,. with some supplemental light ...

i would try to avoid a hot window.. as they might grow to fast ...

and after any of the above.. or try all 3 with different pots..... he will learn that he either wasted money... or how to deal with it ..

ken

IME those boxed plants are quite small. I would pot them, grow them on this summer and plan to set them into the garden in fall.

Bare root woody vines and shrubs - like trees - are generally not sold in boxes :-). If anything, it is just a box (but usually a plastic bag) surrounding the roots to protect them from exposure but typically the plants are of sufficiently plantable size and age.

I personally would look up the berry and grape cultivars

there are big differences re fungus / disease resistance, and I would want good modern cultivars that don't need regular spraying.

I bought a resistant vine with pink grapes that holds up pretty well,

even my neighbor noticed and asked what "medicine" I spray...

@ gardengal: Wlamart, Lowe's and HD sell "boxed" figs, blueberries, raspberries, etc in spring. Yes, the box contains a bag. In the bag is a rooted cutting typically a foot long. If you can plant out one stem in your climate and meet success, that's great. In my climate with hot, dry summers they don't stand a chance. Hence, I suggested the OP grow them on. But thanks for the insult.

But the OP is in zone 3b.....not 7a....vast difference!

Yes, the OP can open the package, size up the stems within and have several viewpoints from which to choose among.

I'm sorry you thought that was insulting (and I have no idea why) but even higher end, quality retail nurseries here sell bare root berries and vines under exactly similar circumstances....just boxless :-) They are short, woody stems maybe a foot tall with a negligible amount of roots attached but can be planted directly into their permanent position as-is. They are typically heeled into bins of damp sawdust or compost but only the roots - the woody portion is free of any covering, as that could lead to rots. Roses are usually sold in the same manner, at least early in the season.

This is very different from the bagged bare root perennials offered by the box stores at this time as well. They are completely enclosed and tend to be puny, undersized starts that DO need coddling.

GG: I think we all know what a "boxed" plant is.... aka "body bags". I see raspberries and grapes sold this way at nurseries and box stores every year, and even vines like clematis; here in my zone, the displays are a common site in spring, and I've bought many things over the years this way. Heck, my beautiful mature white tree peony, may she RIP, was a body-bagged one-stick wonder I bought over 20 years ago at one of the box stores:

She died from transplanting to this house; it was a slow decline over time, I don't think she ever recovered from the move -- had nothing to do with originally being a body bag.

Anyway, it's not a bad idea at all to grow them on if they're small -- I've done that before with bare-roots (regardless of the source), I'm more comfortable babying them in pots until they grow a good root system over the course of the spring/summer and planting in the ground in the fall. Depends on the plant and the beginning root size, though. I did that with the tree peony above -- the result speaks for itself.

Gosh, you people are tetchy!! Chill!

I was only trying to make a distinction between the presentation of bagged/boxed bare root herbaceous perennials and the various woody plants sold bare root. And to point out that they sometimes come without any protective packaging at all.

"Gosh, you people are tetchy!! Chill!"

I had to look up tetchy -- I always thought it was touchy. Guess I learned something new today! Eh, it sounds like OP doesn't have any experience with body bags, it's good to hear about different experiences, so it's all good. :0)

I actually bought some of these a couple weeks ago -- Babycakes blackberry. The bushes are pretty expensive around here, and I don't even know if they'll work for me (Prime-Ark Freedom and Chester were a bust), so gives me a chance to try them without a lot of cash outlay -- no guilt if I ditch them, and if they end up fruiting well then hey I got them for a steal (comparatively).

I've had surprising luck with potting things up and planting in fall. Some things I thought were DOA survived.