Bargain trees - but can they be saved?!

[JofraArchersFastestBall]

I've just bought two Cercis trees from the garden centre. One red and one green leaf. They're in bad shape - but were reduced from £69 to £6 so I thought it was worth a go at bringing them back from the brink.

I'm guessing they've been under watered, and have dropped their leaves, but I don't know. Do you think they'll live? The branches mostly feel alive (not brittle, green if you scrape the bark). Should I get them into the ground? Or try not to disturb them when they're so miserable?!

Take a look at their roots. How do they look?

I would expect that if you get them into the ground and make sure you keep them well watered they will recover in time.

Do try to make sure you prepare the ground really well and tease out the roots if they are very root bound.

Very jealous of your bargain! Must pop into the garden center...

I’d do as previous poster suggested, but also remove the pots and soak the trees in a bucket of water for a couple of hours. I’d also get some specific tree root feed (garden centre or the dreaded Amazon ). Plant them in the cool of the evening.

Yup, I would also soak, plant in ground (if in lawn, clear a patch of grass round the trunk so not competing for moisture and nutrients) and keep watered for the remainder of the year.

Brilliant, thank you for the advice. Tried to prepare holes for them this morning but the ground was very hard. Have given both trees and ground a good water and will try again this evening. I think I've got some tree root fertiliser from when we planted an apple tree, I'll try and find that :)

Please post again, next year with a photo, so we can see your success. I, like many on here, love a rescue plant that then thrives.

This time of year is brilliant for finding trees like this, you can get some great bargains when they have singed leaves. I've had a couple of acers that have bounced back really well.

Best of luck.