I would go ahead and plant it and give it some TLC all summer long. Sweetbay magnolia is a tree that much prefers being planted in spring as opposed to fall. I know that's contrary to most other trees, which benefit from fall planting. But Sweetbay needs some time to get established in it's soil to help avoid winter dieback. I would also give a tree that small some protection in the hot, late afternoon sun. I'm assuming the rootball on the tree is no more than a few inches, so come July or August, the sun could simply cook that little thing. Heck, sit a lawn chair over it in the afternoon to give it some shade. And keep it well watered and properly mulched.

Hi Renee (if you're still there) Just wanted to let you know that I followed your advice throughout winter, and my little tree basically just hibernated. But since the days have started getting longer again, the tree is growing like crazy! It's a very happy little tree now! Thank you for the good advice :) Sarah

I'll take another close up picture today, but it looks like its got 2 needles coming out of each hole. I'll put a ruler on the needles too. I have so many I don't know how I can pot them all. Right now each of them was dug out with a pretty big root ball because the soil is still nice and wet. What am I going to do with all these??? And where to plant them???? I have a pretty big wet area (sometimes wet in spring and fall), maybe I could put them there.

Not dogwood. It is a bit out of focus and I can’t see how the leaves come off the stem, but perhaps Malus which includes apples and crab apples.