Kat, when you plant that tree, make sure of two things - that you don't put it too deep in the ground (it's better too high than too deep) and soak it for maybe an hour in a big bucket of water, and knock as much of the pot dirt off - get as close to bare root as you can get. Find some little sticks, twigs, whatever, and set the tree in a wide but not particularly deep hole and stretch the roots out (the ones that were all wrapped up on themselves in the pot) and "stake" them in place with the twigs as you slowly fill in the dirt from digging the hole. Don't add a lot of fertilizer and fancy dirt, the tree needs to get accustomed to the native dirt. This procedure will let this tree get established faster and send roots out, not continue wrapping and binding itself too tight (as it was in the pot).

I did that last week when I planted my bay tree. The roots were all growing in on themselves, and were stretched out as I planted it. And the "too deep" thing has to do with how nurseries often scoop extra dirt into pots before shipping them, so the tree is under a couple of extra inches already. You should be able to see the root flare above ground when you plant a tree. (All of this comes from Howard Garrett, the Dirt Doctor, and after having several trees die because I just planted them the old fashioned way, the trees I've planted this way are all doing very well.)

SRS