It would really depend on which species of tree you would be buying. Perhaps the first consideration would be whether it is suitable for aspect and the soil type in which it would be planted. Basically, at this time of the year you would be looking for a good open shape without lots of crossing and whippy branches. But I must give a word of warning, don't buy it just because it's cheap. If it's not what you really want; wait and buy a tree later at the full price.

I've plenty of the sort already :) but there's several I want from this place- I won't be home when they're in leaf I'll be back at uni :)

Hi Dan, if you can, try lifting it out of the pot, the chances are it will either be pot bound, with the roots just going round in circles, or it could have just been potted, direct from the field, a lot of nurseries just pot up their bare root trees, to get more money for them, look for trees that say ''pot grown'' not just the word potted, the pot grown ones are the ones that will probably be pot bound, but this can be rectified easily when planting, but 1 that has been potted up in early winter will not have any roots in the new compost, in which case you can either negotiate with them on price, explaining that you know what they've done, or you can go for the ''pot grown'' 1, again you can negotiate, saying that as it's pot bound, you will have to spend time freeing the roots from the mass of roots so the tree has a chance of thriving when planted, good luck, Derek.