I would protect them. Have run into the problem on shipped plants a number of times. The problem is not so much their state now, it's the fact that once the buds are activated, they ain't stopp'in. They can be slowed down some by persistent cold, but a warm day or two, and away they will go to get slammed by later cold. Also just so you are aware, some are seeing signals in the weather models that indicate that the March pattern may return again by the middle of the month.

Arktrees

Thats the other thing I was wondering as to whether they'd just "pause".

I'm so impatient I planted the hydrangea but it was just barely showing a bit of green. I'll likely hold off on the Carpinus...such a pain to baby the thing for almost a month though.

Yes, I've heard April is supposed to be colder than normal. The damn 30s for a high return later in the week. So basically 20 degrees below the average high.

At least today warmed up pretty good to 58. I got quite a bit of transplanting done even though several areas had frost yet.