Help!!! Bare roots

I bought some bare root elderflower plants over Christmas with the intention of planting now they arrived 2 days ago in the post and I immediately put them into a bucket of water as the ground was frozen and still is!

How long can I keep them in water or could it just be too late for them?

 

I would just transfer them to a bucket of soil or moist sand until you can get them in the ground.

The other option is to dig the frost off the top of a soil bed, it's probably only a couple of inches, and heel them into the softer ground below. They are very hardy plants but the bucket of soil would be my prefered method.

 

I have some old spent compost?

Should I keep them inside (non heated garage)

 

If its due to be really cold then a non heated garage will be fine until you can plant them but they should be fine outside.