Beechwood Trees Nursary

Today I have received my Tulip tree from Beechwood Trees Nursary. It is the first time I have been buying from them online. I have known that my tree would be sent bare rooted. I previously bought several bare rooted plants from different garden centres but they always were sent with wet soil round the roots covered by plastic bags. I have been surprised that my Tulip tree came with really bare roots without any soil of them. I have planted it today in a pot but I am not sure it will be fine. I don't think I will be buying from this Nursary again.

 

Did the tree come with instructions to soak the roots in a bucket of water for a couple of hours, Black Orchid? It's standard advice for truly bare-root plants. Even if you didn't, the tree should be OK once it's got damp (not wet) compost well distributed round the roots. They look good and healthy!
One tip for planting bare-root trees and shrubs, especially in heavy soil, is to make up a slurry of well-rotted farmyard manure, clay and water (admittedly all things available in abundance here), swish the roots round in the mixture, then plant. The 'pralin' coats the fine roots, making sure that they're in contact with growing medium and not fresh air. Much better than the advice to tread and compact the earth, especially on clay.

 

Thank you all for your replies.
There were no instructions but after I got the tree I soaked the roots in a bucket with water for more than 10 hours before planting it in a pot. I used some bonemeal when planting in compost with some sand.
I hope it will be fine.

 

I recently got some bare root roses from Beechwood. No problems.

 

On the farm where I worked they planted new bare root apple trees most winters.
I was amazed at how they treated them, they had large bundles of them, all with totally bare roots and they just stored them in a barn for a couple of days. If it was very dry and windy they would perhaps spray the roots with water, but not very often.

I think they had pretty near a 100% take, on the the following spring when planted, so I think its surprising how long bare root trees can be left before planting.

 

Not only that, but my two latest pecan nut trees arrived from Spain last autumn with hardly any root at all. They're tap-rooted trees, so I really didn't expect them to survive. They did, though, and have both established well enough to provide 'company' for the original, lonely tree So don't be too hard on Beechwood, Black Orchid

 

Often the broken anchor roots make the tree produce more fibrous root.

Nurseries often transplant trees a couple of times to get large trees with a good root system, I believe.

 

Thank you all for your encouraging replies. Now I'll be waiting for spring to see how it grows. The pot is not a big one at the moment, just about 30 cm wide, but slowly slowly I am planning to get the largest pot for it and make it the main attraction of our Close. We had 2 beautiful large cherry trees (with pink flowers in spring) in our close but the council (?) decided to get rid of them without any consultation with the people living in the Close. Perhaps they were too close to the house with flats which stands along one side of the Close.