its best to plant them.. when they are dormant ... trees with leaves take a lot of stress if you plant them with such ...

you buy them.. where you can find them .. i bet most of the hardcore mail order them ...

up here in z5 MI ... insuring dormant stock.. you plant them as soon as the soil is thawed.. and you can take delivery ... 6 to 8 weeks before leaf out.. if you can ...

which generally means.. in MI .... april thru mid may ... [though this year it seems that might be july or so.. when the soil warms.. lol ...]

first.. decide what you want.. then find out how to buy them.. then figure out were to plant them.. then plant them ....

ken

Thanks Ken! I really appreciate all your guys help!

Joe

Yep...
You need the plants to be pretty well fully dormant unless you are planting LATE - well after the last frost....

So.. That means it's pretty much OK to plant when the ground is not frozen.....

Where to get them.... If you trust your local garden centers - then buy there if they have the varieties you are after....

I end up mail ordering more and more from nurseries with really good reputations - simply because Garden Centers and especially big box stores just have too much mis-marked stuff....

so... Sure - you got yourself a Peach or Apple... but that's about all you can be sure of....

For example.. I bought an "Elberta" peach at a local Home Improvement store... but I ended up with a mediocre yellow peach that doesn't ripen anywhere near the "Elberta" window... and isn't reliable year to year - apparently because of chill hour requirements (and Elberta is dead reliable around here..) What is it? Miscellaneous... Yellow... Peach....

Thanks