When to plant each tree and shrub we grow, and how well it moves

Spring or fall? For most trees and shrubs either will do, as long as the sapling is dormant, and for some the growing guide is particular. The table below gives the season for every plant in the catalog, A to Z, and beside it what the Morton Arboretum’s profile of the species says about moving it. The planting window tool turns the season into dates for a ZIP code.

How to read the table

The season column reads each plant’s own planting sentence by the planting window tool’s rules. Any means the dormant season or either season, spring means the guide names spring alone, and fall means it names fall or winter alone. A guide that gives bare-root and potted saplings different seasons shows split by stock, with each season in the next column.

The moving columns come from the Morton Arboretum’s profiles, which Blue Whale Trees read for each species on 2026-10-10; 75 of the plants have one. Moves well is the profile’s own field, and the notes come from its text.

Planting windows, A to Z

The table holds the 414 trees and shrubs we grow: 352 plant in either season, 24 in spring, 6 in fall and 1 split by stock. A name opens the plant’s page.

Jump to a letter: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

The table as a file

Download the table as CSV or JSON: 414 rows, one for one tree or shrub the nursery grows, with the columns below. The figures are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence: use them with a credit to bluewhaletrees.com and a link to this page. Updated 2026-10-22.

What each column means

• slug: the plant page’s address, https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants//
• name: the common name the page uses
• botanical: the botanical name
• season: when the page says to plant: any for the dormant season or either season, spring, fall, or split where bare-root and potted saplings differ; empty where the page names no season
• season_bare_root: the season for a bare-root sapling where the page splits them
• season_potted: the season for a potted sapling where the page splits them
• moves_well: Yes, No or Moderate: the Morton Arboretum profile’s own field on whether the species transplants well, where it has one
• hard_to_move: true where the profile’s field says No or its text calls the species difficult to transplant, false where it says Yes or easy; empty where it says neither
• move_in_spring: true where the profile says to move or plant the species in spring

How the table is made

The season is read from each plant page’s own planting sentence by the planting-window tool’s rules. The moving columns are the Morton Arboretum’s profile of the species, read on 2026-10-10; a species without a profile leaves them empty. The files are written from the records and checked at every release.

Cite this page

Copy a link or a reference. A press on a box copies it.

<a href="https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-windows/">Planting windows and moving: when to plant each species and how well it moves</a>, Blue Whale Trees, updated October 22, 2026.

Blue Whale Trees. (2026, October 22). Planting windows and moving: when to plant each species and how well it moves. https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-windows/

Common questions

When is the best time to plant a native tree?

While it is dormant, from leaf fall to bud swell, which is why most rows say any. A plant whose roots are slow to take hold, such as an oak or a magnolia, is often given spring alone.

Which trees are hard to move?

Thirty-nine of the species with a Morton profile are marked hard to move, mostly taprooted trees such as the oaks, hickories and walnuts. They move best small, as saplings.

Why plant some trees only in spring?

A tree that resents root loss, such as a magnolia or a birch, needs a full season to recover before winter. Ten species carry Morton’s advice to move them in spring.

Does bare-root stock change the season?

Often: bare-root saplings go in while fully dormant, usually spring in the North, while a potted plant can wait for fall. The split rows show where the guide separates the two.