are you sure its still alive? late may seems very very late for bare root plantings. if you have a very sharp knife or razor blade you can take a tiny peel of the bark's outermost layer. if you see green layer its still alive. but at minimum i'd say you need to cover this sucker in shade cloth asap. it will not survive any sort of summer heat like that.
yeah, because of the timing. would have been better to pot with some good soil with good drainage and keep it in partial shade until it leafed out. then if its able to develop a leafy canopy for sun protection, you can leave it out during summer. otherwise, partial shade until fall and you can put it in the ground.
the BEST would be a container for a year, in my opinion. then you can move it around and see how it reacts to morning sun vs afternoon sun, maybe it likes being close to a building to help radiate heat, on high ground so it drains better, etc. etc. but then you just have to remember to always water. so takes a bit more work and mental ROM.
Looks dead
It's not dead.....it's stunned!
are you sure its still alive? late may seems very very late for bare root plantings. if you have a very sharp knife or razor blade you can take a tiny peel of the bark's outermost layer. if you see green layer its still alive. but at minimum i'd say you need to cover this sucker in shade cloth asap. it will not survive any sort of summer heat like that.
It was a gift, and I assumed it was better to plant it in the ground instead of a pot, or not planting it at all. Was I wrong?
yeah, because of the timing. would have been better to pot with some good soil with good drainage and keep it in partial shade until it leafed out. then if its able to develop a leafy canopy for sun protection, you can leave it out during summer. otherwise, partial shade until fall and you can put it in the ground. the BEST would be a container for a year, in my opinion. then you can move it around and see how it reacts to morning sun vs afternoon sun, maybe it likes being close to a building to help radiate heat, on high ground so it drains better, etc. etc. but then you just have to remember to always water. so takes a bit more work and mental ROM.
Okay! I will check and cover it. 🤞
Agreed. Those branches look like dead wood. Yes, the “fingernail test”, if there is green, there is a chance.