It is ideal to plant your order as soon as possible after delivery but if planting is delayed, everything will be fine! Both bareroot and pot-grown plants can be stored for a long time if necessary. 

If bareroot planting is delayed in winter: If your bareroot plants arrive and planting will be delayed for less than a week, open the top of the packaging leaving the roots in their bag and store them in a cold place out of the sun, ideally outside. It doesn't matter at all if the weather is freezing, but you must not move the plants around when they are frozen. If a week passes and planting is delayed even further, you need to "heel them in" by digging a little trench, lying the plants on their sides with their roots in the trench and covering them with soil. Depending on weather conditions, bareroot plants should be planted properly by the end of March in the South. Gardeners in the North can usually get away with planting well into April. 

If pot-grown planting is delayed: Simply put your plants in a sunny place and water them when the top inch of soil is dry. This might be every day or two in a scorching hot mid-summer, but during a wet winter, it usually isn't necessary.