Last year, in my other house I planted apple trees and had a bit of a time with them. One came into leaf early and the leaves were killed by frost. Result: in the spring no leaves! They were only fairly cheap so one loss wasnt devastating.

As some of you know, I moved house last June. I now want to start the apple tree saga again.

I bought two suitable specimens from Netto. We soaked them in a bucket ready to plant, then both me and the Mr came down with a nasty tummy bug. We left the trees in a bucket in the garage, and drained the water off. Guess what's happened? The leaves have sprouted.

So, do I leave them in the garage until Spring or do I plant them out now and cover the branches which have leaves in fleece?

Are the tree bare rooted or in pots? If they're in pots you can plant them out when you want really, but if they're bare rooted they need planting out now (ish). If it's just the leaves that are killed off by the frosts it's not a great problem in the long term, the tree will be there for many years (hopefully). If it's the tree that's killed off I'd buy them from a dedicated fruit supplier in the future for better quality plants.

I bought a couple of netto apple trees and planted them up at the allotment. I noticed today that one of them is springing into life and has loads of new leaves on it.

I guess you could either plant the temporalily in pots and keep them somewhere sheltered or you could plant them in the ground and cover the with fleece for the winter - both ways they would get some shelter.