Gave it a shot and planted the tree this weekend. Mulched it well and gave a healthy drink of water, so hopefully it will make it's big debut in the spring :-)

If you baby it over the winter, early spring especially, I bet it'll be fine. Pile a lot of snow around it. It's those freeze-thaw-freeze cycles that'd get it.

Can you believe how gorgeous and long this autumn has been? We're still eating from the garden and we have planters with blooming flowers! Sanvitalia is such a winner here in pots! It just laughs at frost.

Susan

Thanks - I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this little guy - no one has ever given me a tree before :-) !

The night temps of mid-twenties pretty much killed everything off this week in my garden - nothing sadder than a fall flower-bed full of wilted, dead impatiens...

Japanese maples are among the favoritist deer food around. If you have any deer who come visiting, be sure to protect the little tree from them. We just finished planting 20 trees and shrubs this past Thursday. If you hadn't planted it, you should have sunk the pot into the ground anyway so I think you did the right thing. Also remember that the voles love newly disturbed earth with new roots to eat, protected by mulch. I feel like such a voice of doom but I've lost a number of plants to voles in the winter and they seem to be more abundant in the past year or two.

I've caught voles by putting a spring-type rat trap baited with beets, near their hole, under an inverted, slightly tipped, black plant bucket. They destroyed my beet crop but I got 3 of them in traps this way. Nasty varmints.
Susan

I will try traps also, but I've been experimenting with castor oil mole repellent. Have used it in three different gardens and will know next spring if it works.

The deer will likely be the biggest problem with the tree, but then again, when aren't they the biggest problem ? :-))There are a lot of wild cats in my area and I think they keep the voles in check as that's one rodent I have not yet had problems with. I occassionaly see little mousie guys running around - can't tell if they are voles or just field mice - but never for a long time.

I'm hoping this somewhat warm-ish weather hangs around for a little while longer, as some mail order lily bulbs I ordered are just shipping today - may be too late for them too, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Philomena, it's not too late to put the lily bulbs in the ground. Dig holes now while the ground is still soft. I've read that they are never really dormant which is why they wait so long to dig and ship them...that's for the oriental lilies...don't know about the other kinds. But I bet they're better off in the ground than hanging around in a bag.

Unfortunately, it seems that the email I received telling me the bulbs were shipping was a bit optimistic. No bulbs have shown up yet, and I even got another note a couple days later telling em the same thing - bulbs are shipping tomorrow.
Well looks like tomorrow will never come, so I have gone ahead and cancelled the order. I just feel like the odds would be against the bulbs surviving if planted in December - may as well just wait until next year, and order from someone else.