I’m looking forward to getting started as well- the first nursery orders are slated to come in early next week, with 2 from California. One from Roger Meyers with 50 jujube rootstocks and my Bay Laurel order.
Even with the warmer weather coming (finally in the 40’s for highs), it will take a while to melt all the snow. Here’s a pic (Thursday afternoon) of my patio, with some potted blueberries barely sticking through. And that is the corner of a picnic table on the left…
Hoosier, I’ve course you are allowed to comment on your weather- as long as you focus on hail, untimely frosts and drought only! At least until this 2’ feet of crusty snow has started to seriously melt. It is the hardest snow to pull a ladder through that I can remember. Am I getting old?
Wow…nothing like that here. We are a solid foot below normal.
One interesting thing is finding the vole tunnels in the snow. I killed a few over the winter, but i think i’ll put some new traps out again. Its crazy the highways they make under the snow.
One positive about Wisconsin is water. Seems like flooding is always more a concern then drought. Also nice to have 50F-55F well water when its 90F+ outside in July.
I’m hoping for a normal March/April and a hot May to get things going fast this year.
Is the joining of any two words more oxymoronic than normal weather?
Yesterday I barrelled through two feet of snow to plant some apples and a peach in raised beds on my mountain property.
We finally have temps in the 40s with some 50s coming not far behind. Sun just came out and we are getting some good melting.
Yes isn’t it sweeeeet! 
Too bad I have been inside all day fixing an annoying computer issue. Finally its done and now I’m going to catch up on some pruning!
Scott
We are having 40s and 50s is on the way in Chicago. a foot of snow is still on the ground , melting fast. Will the trees wake up and flower soon, repeating of 2013 early bloom and later frost cycle? BTW people are woken for sure, I went out on Sunday, every parking lot was full like in X’mas time.
55F all afternoon here and sun… 60Fs tomorrow and again on Friday and maybe warmer on Monday…cool down for the weekend… Snow is about 90% gone here.
Bay Laurel order came today. No way its going in the ground without a jackhammer.
franktank I just got my order from Bay Laurel too. 3 trees in all, Weeping Santa Rosa, Laroda Plum, and Emerald Drop Pluot. The latter two came branched and the laroda even had a few flowers way up high… to bad they got whacked… Lol. No need for a plum tree with a 5 foot tall central lead. The Santa Rosa however came in around 3/4 inch caliper with zero branching… taller and thicker than my WSR from Raintree last year, but I hope it doesn’t follow the same route that one did… didn’t sprout the whole season and finally completely died late fall…
I’ll try to take some pics. My driveway is starting to get a tad full of potted trees.
They sent me Monique white apricot and Shar kae something apricot which Scott says is actually an aprium… Both are on Marianna 2624 —which i’ve never grown before. I’ll take some pics before i pot them up…
I got 2 boxes today, each of them part of an order.
Roger Meyers: 50 jujube rootstocks (5 bags in middle of pic) and 3 trees (top of pic). I’ll start another thread on this order, as I haven’t seen much in the way of reports on Roger’s plants before.
To Be Sent: scionwood
Bay Laurel: 3 trees:
Liz’s Late nectarine on Citation (15/16" caliper)
Autumn Gold apricot on Citation (5/8" caliper)
Loring Peach on Lovell (17/16" caliper and 15/16" at the top almost 3’ above the graft union)
To Be Sent: 6 more BL trees should arrive tomorrow
I know these descriptions are incomplete without some info about the roots. But, I haven’t opened them up yet and will probably wait a week or two until the snow melts enough. Until then, I have them in my garage, which is in the high 40’s.
Bob,
Have you ordered from Bay Laurel before? This is my first time offering from them and I must say I am very impressed with the trees. Most had new root growth, there was some leafing out, flowers, etc. The roots looked awesome, and every tree (besides the WSR, which is a good thing) had good low branching. On a scale of 1-10 of who I’ve ordered from in the past I’d have to give BL a 10 for sure!!
This is the 2nd time I’ve ordered from them. I got a couple trees (Gold Dust and Tomcot) and a blackberry from them in 2013. Both were big 15/16"+ trees. The blackberry appears to be the wrong variety (Natchez isn’t supposed to be thorny…) and they are replacing it for me this year.
I think it is Dave Wilson which is responsible for the nice big trees- the trees from Sanhedrin (another DW distributor) last year were just as large.
The diameter is one thing but what I hate is they remove almost the entire root system. Sets them back almost a year. I’d rather have less diameter and more root.
I ordered from sanhedrin last year and placed an order for well over $300. Dave and Jenny were super nice people. The only gripe I had was in order to easily fit the trees in the shipping box they were whacked off pretty severe. Many of the trees I received were easily 3/4 caliper and above but no more that 30-36 inches tall with zero branching.
You can only guess how the peaches turned out… every one of them only sprouted from right above the graft and had to regrow a new central lead. The Fantasia nectarine they sent however only pushed out from the rootstock. Now the plums and pluots fared way better, but then again they always do.
I would say as far as root size, BL and sanhedrin are both in the same grouping, but Grow Organic by far had the largest root mass.
A yr, really? I haven’t seen that difference. My feeling is roots are like tops. The more you cut them back the faster they regrow. Maybe that’s wrong. But with irrigation I’ve not seen root mass make much difference. All my trees grow great if I take care of them.
I have had bad luck with hacked back roots. I have also seen plants with huge root systems take off like rockets compared to their neighbors. So from my experience root size (and condition) matters.
Scott
I’ve had trees with little roots that took a long time to get going…
Shorts weather!!! In Wisconsin it doesn’t take much warmth before those pasty white legs come out 
The first signs of life!
I looked at my trailing blackberries that were covered. Well just a small part, it was very green! I will uncover as soon as the ground is workable. I have garden staples holding burlap, and they are frozen in still. Very late last fall i stuck in 8 cuttings of 4 black currents. and all of them have buds, wow that was easy! It was like November when planted, almost winter, and so far so good!
Everything else is still sleeping even the tulips!
Warm this week in the high 60’s and colder next week in the low 40’s. I hope for no buds break. On 3-22-15, predicted low of 26F overnight and potential for a freeze. Keep my fingers crossed.
Tony
