bareroot trees, problems?

I ordered Redbud and Japanese Maple trees from a reputable mail order nursery and they were shipped bare root. I followed the directions and planted them the morning after I received them. 4 weeks later the Redbud is growing a couple of suckers coming up from the bottom and the Japanese Maple is still dormant/dead. Is there any hope for them or is it time for me to contact the company about replacements? Any help? comments? What is everyone else's experience with bareroot tree seedlings?

Last year I had great luck with bare roots - crabapples, roses, and several shrubs - they all did well and made it thru the winter without any problems (except for one rose that was way out of its zone).

This year, I've had mixed luck planting bare roots. The roses have done fine. Out of several trees (fringe tree, japanese lilac, serviceberry, hackberry, hawthorn and redbud) almost all have lost their leader, but have growth coming from further down the trunk. Finally gave up on the Hackberry - was happy to find a potted replacement at Agway this weekend. The Serviceberry is doing well and kept its leader though.

All plants came from the same sources as I used last year (and all have good ratings), so maybe I did something to cause the problems I have had.

I'm also not sure this is the best time of year to be shipping & planting bare-root stuff? I would think the summer heat wouldn't be good for them and would decrease the odds of success. I'd at least call the place you got them from and tell them the JM still looks dead and see what they say--even good nurseries will ship a bad plant from time to time, what makes them good is how they respond and fix things.

ecreane3, if they were bareroot 4 weeks ago I wonder how were they stored? Four weeks ago JM's here were fully leafed out. Odd.

Some large growers keep the bareroot plants in cold storage.

Ah Hah! Then most likely it is a storage problem. There are some Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources people now advocating bare root planting as preferable to B&B in some situations. I dunno. I favor B&B if you remove as much of the burlap as possible, and all of the wire cage. Then find the root flare and set the tree at the proper height. We (local tree commission) also tease out about the outer 1/3 of the roots from the root ball. Then we "mud" it in. It costs the municipality in man hours with the extra time necessary but we have found that this method greatly reduces losses. Street trees are not Japanese Maples though. I like containers for JM's.

Thanks! I figured it might have been due to trouble during shipment. I'm going to contact the nursery & see what they say.