As long as it shows green hang in there. They are naturally late to leaf out. It's too late to plant another so you might as well give it every chance.

Thanks, fruitnut. Yeah, I'm going to give it until it is definitely dead. I've just never seen anything take this long to break dormancy. I certainly don't want to go thru the trouble of replacing it and staring over next year. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I have 2 japanese persimmon seedlings in containers. I had given both up for dead twigs a long time ago, but they now have healthy leaves.

My rule of thumb now with dead-looking trees is leave them for a year and see what happens.

It's not unusual for these bare root persimmons to not leaf out until August, and I've heard of cases where they didn't leaf out until the following spring. This is caused by transplantation shock from improper care of the roots. So perhaps all is not lost, but it does not speak well of the nursery that sent the trees to you. It may be wise to contact them now about the problem in case they later need to be replaced.