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Bare root plants and cold weather - please advise!

• Message 1. 

  Posted by glt (U14463369) on Monday, 6th February 2012

  Hi all,
  
  I ordered several bare root plants - a quince tree, plum tree, ornamental cherry and a dogwood and typically they all arrived just as this cold snap started. I'm in the south west and the ground has been frozen so I decided not to plant them.
  
  Trouble is I've had them for over a week now, and while it's been mild the past couple of days, minus temperatures are predicted overnight for the next week so I still don't think it's a great idea to plant yet.
  
  I've assumed it's too hot to store them in the house, but with overnight temperatures hitting -5 I'm worried they'll get damaged even when stored in the shed.
  
  I'm doing my best to keep the roots moist and have wrapped them in straw.
  
  Do you think they will be okay? Any suggestions on anything else I should be doing to keep them healthy? At what sort of temperatures would I be better of just getting them in the ground?
  
  Thanks very much,
  Gill

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by AlinaW (U2220240) on Monday, 6th February 2012

  You can't plant them while the ground is frozen, but you can't store them, either.
  Your best bet is to get yourself a container of some sort and put their roots in it, covering them with compost. It doesn't matter if they're all squashed together, but they do need to be planted. If your shed is very cold insulate the container.
  They can stay like this until you can plant them out when the weather improves.

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by thedogcody (U14659366) on Monday, 6th February 2012

  You have bought plants for the garden so I would not worry about low temperatures at all.
  
  If the conditions are not right for planting i.e.too cold or/and wet then you can heel them in -that is a temporary planting until the conditions improve.
  
  Keeping the roots wet is ok for a short-while but I would worry about keeping plants like you describe in that state for more than a couple of days
  
  I have attached a link that describes heeling-in probably better than I can
  
  

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