HOW AND WHEN TO PLANT A TREE

THERE’S MORE THAN ONE RIGHT TIME FOR PLANTING, BUT THERE’S ONLY ONE RIGHT WAY TO DO IT.

PEOPLE ALWAYS ask me, “Roy, when’s the best time to plant a tree?” For as long as I can remember, I’ve answered without needing a second to think: in the fall. That gives the tree a chance to acclimate to its surroundings, I tell them, before the stress of summer comes on. I’ve known this since boyhood.

“Then why do garden centers always have an acre of great-looking trees out in the spring?” a colleague asked me recently. I thought for a second. It was true. “Because they want to sell you stuff,” I said.

At his insistence – and to prove myself right – I dialed three tree experts for corroboration. It took only one call to prove me wrong. Carrie Hennessy, a horticulturist at Johnson’s Nursery, in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, at first had me thinking she was on my side. “Fall is a great time to plant. ”Ha. Then: “But at those big retailers, you usually get the best quality material in the spring.” Oh. Maybe it was a Midwestern thing. So I called two more experts, Joey Barton, a second-generation plantsman at Barton Nurseries in Edison, New Jersey, and Sarah Elvington at the Plant Oregon nursery in Talent, Oregon. To rub potting soil in the wound, they told me the spring months gave trees plenty of time to prepare for summer.

I now stand before you (or at least before my editor) a changed man, offering you advice on how to plant a tree in your yard this spring, which apparently is not such a bad idea. (Note: This advice also works in the fall, which is still a better idea.)