Can my utterly neglected containerised trees still flourish or not?

[0o0o0o0]

I have a couple, six blossom trees that I bought in pots. The pots are slightly smaller than a builder's bucket size. The trees have been left in these pots for too long probably 5 years 😬I imagine that the roots have gone around and around and around the pots inside. Every year I've lifted them up to break the roots they'd grown through the base of the pots. The trees are still alive and are beginning to blossom for this year. I can't plant them out now but if I managed to plant them in the summer, what sort of life will they have in the future? Will they be forever stunted, or might they still reach their potential if I put them into good soil?

They should be fine. You need to tease out the roots, so they lose the habit of going round and round. Or it may be better to take a sharp knife and cut 4 or 5 deep cuts the full height of the rootball. Recently it’s been suggested that a square hole is better than a round one as the roots will seek out the corners.

Summer is not an ideal time to plant. You’ll need to be prepared to keep them well watered, giving them the equivalent of a heavy storm, half an inch of rainfall, each time

Although planting in summer isn’t ideal I would stand them in water for 24 hours, pour several gallons of water into the planting hole and after sorting out the rootball backfill with soil plus homemade compost.
Keep very well watered and they will be fine.
I did this to two terribly neglected fruit trees last summer and both bore fruit for the first time!