Potted Trees shipped too early ?

[White Oak]

Normally the big box stores Lowes/Home Depot/ Tractor supply get their potted trees delivered in Mid Feb here in Zone 7 VA. This year they all had them out last week !. Granted it's been a mild winter thus far, however today I woke up to a mix of sleet and snow and tomorrow morning it's going to dip down to 15 degrees !. Won't the roots freeze and kill the trees ?. Most of my Wildlife trees are bare root from Blue Hill & Whitetail crabs...BUT I do have a few potted trees a Couple Dr Deer Pears from Walmart, 3 Keiffer pears and a Moonglow pear from Lowes and 2 Callaway Crabs from Tractor Supply.

 

[BrushyPines]

I had many potted trees for a few years waiting to be planted. Mainly because of a pending sale of land and also waiting for loggers to thin pines. I was told by a local nursery that if the temp got down to 15 degrees or below that the potted tree roots would die. I have always put my potted trees in an insulated shop or a garage with an insulated door when temps got down that low (not often for my area) and have had no trees die in the past. Thank God those trees are in the ground now. Lol I am in zone 7 as well.

 

[Barndog56]

A couple of years ago the local Walmart lost all their fruit and shade trees a week after they arrived.

 

[Turkey Creek]

It was either last Spring or the one before. I saw 100s of trees at Home Depot and Lowes get fried when they got their trees in too early.

 

[White Oak]

It's been a pretty mild winter here in Central Virginia overall, we did have one EXTREMELY cold week before Christmas ....maybe 3-4 days and a couple days with wind chills -15 below if I remember correctly . That's the coldest I've ever experienced here in 20 years. Yesterday was the first "snow" if you can call it that, maybe 1/16 th of a inch that was gone in no time. Tomorrow morning at 7 am the temperature is supposed to be 15 degrees....I'll keep a eye on those potted trees to see what happens. Other years the trees normally arrive around the 15 th of Feb at the earliest to the last week of Feb . That's a lot of money to lose if all the trees freeze and die !....but they can probably just write it off as a tax loss

 

[Bluestone]

I noticed that Lowe’s doesn’t have hardly any potted pears so far this year. Probably 50-60 apples, 50 ornamental crabs, few dozen peaches and cherries, but no pears. This was the case at two Lowe’s stores this week. One in southside va, the other in northern nc. Last year there were several dozen pears at most stores when the shipment arrived early Feb.

 

[SwampCat]

I bought two potted elberta peach trees last fall. Got down near zero here several nights in a row around Christmas. I put them in the ground two weeks ago. They are obviously going to bud out - hopefully not too early

 

[White Oak]

I noticed that Lowe’s doesn’t have hardly any potted pears so far this year. Probably 50-60 apples, 50 ornamental crabs, few dozen peaches and cherries, but no pears. This was the case at two Lowe’s stores this week. One in southside va, the other in northern nc. Last year there were several dozen pears at most stores when the shipment arrived early Feb.

I'll look more closely for pears the next time I'm at the Lynchburg or Bedford Lowes. I was mainly looking to see what type of Disease resistant apples they had...The had a few Liberty apples. IF I buy anything from Lowe's this year I might pick up one Liberty apple tree to add to the mix ..as I already I have Liberty and Enterprise coming from Whitetail Crabs. I understand what you're saying , in years past Lowes was always loaded with Pear trees,,,I noticed last year they didn't have nowhere near as many.

 

[White Oak]

I noticed that Lowe’s doesn’t have hardly any potted pears so far this year. Probably 50-60 apples, 50 ornamental crabs, few dozen peaches and cherries, but no pears. This was the case at two Lowe’s stores this week. One in southside va, the other in northern nc. Last year there were several dozen pears at most stores when the shipment arrived early Feb.

AS for potted pears I believe I'm done buying them for now....From Lowes I have 3 Keiffers and 1 moonglow...and 2 DR Deer pears from Walmart. All are growing well , but going forward I'd like to add some Wildlife Pears from the Wildlife group and if I have room some Varity's from Hallman farms or Trophy pears from Chestnut Hill Outdoors