Where to buy trees online is decidedly less important than planting them at the right time of year and in the right conditions. Once they are planted, both trees and shrubs--if they don't die within a few months because they've been planted in the wrong conditions or the wrong time of year--are around for many decades. Trees--whether redwood, maple, dogwood, sycamore, white oak or birch--are the longest living creatures. They are an integral part of our ecosystem. Those you plant, you want to long outlive you.

As you search for where to buy trees online you can learn a great deal. The more time a tree has to adjust to new soil and circumstances before adverse conditions (frozen ground, harsh winds, and limited sunlight) set in, the better. But this is only the beginning. Had you thought in terms of large cedars or blue spruce on the west or north of a house as playing a real role in reducing heating costs?

The Hows of Where to Buy Trees Online

Before the Internet nurseries that sold nationally advertised and sold by catalog. You bought from Burpee's or Scotts, for example. Asking where to buy trees online is little different than asking what catalog to use. How do you decide where to buy trees online? What are the criteria?

Look for a nursery willing to answer questions. Look for a nursery with a website that offers not only trees and shrubs and other plants, but extensive Q&A resources and fact sheets as well. What will give you the most confidence in where to buy trees online will most likely be whether the nursery is staffed by horticultural experts.

You might be looking for ornamental trees. Some are especially effective in small informal gardens, among them weeping spring cherry, snowy mespilus, and golden rain tree. On the other hand, you might be thinking in terms of shade trees. Several are especially fast growing, hardy, handsome, and long lived. Among these are the red maple (moist soil), the Japanese zelkova (an elm replacement), tuliptree (needs plenty of room), and London planetree (attractive mottled bark). As you do your research of where to buy trees online, look for nurseries that will ship trees only at the planting time right for your zone.

The Whats of Where to Buy Trees Online

What tree is the right tree and what place is the right place for a tree depend on so many things. What is the climate? How cold are the winters? How much sun will it get? What is the soil composition? What are the prevailing winds? What is the annual rainfall? What other trees or shrubs or plants will be near it? How much "elbow room" will it have?

It's easy to forget that trees need as much care as any other plant. Their roots do not go as deep as we might think, for example. The roots are fine, even hair-like, and spread through the first couple feet of soil in search of both nutrients and water. This is why mulching around trees is usually bad for them--it's suffocating them, in effect.

Remember that the two-foot or five-foot sapling you plant will be considerably taller in 20 years and 60 years. You don't want to plant too near a creek bank or near overhead electricity or telephone wires. You don't want to plant a tree so close to a house that growth is difficult or that branches will eventually interfere with the roof or gutters or external wiring.