Bare root fruit tree, few leaves?

[Ellesbells]

I got two bare root fruit trees at the end of last year, a plum and a damson, both seem to be having issues with putting on leaves. Now they are not dead, because there are green shoots, BUT is this normal to be so slow?

Currently the plum has no leaves on the branches at all, in fact the top half of the tree looks dead. However there are new leaves/branches forming on the lower part trunk (this is defo the plum and not the rootstock) so I dont know what to think!

The Damson has small leaves on the branches, but they dont appear to be getting any bigger.... its like its got stuck.

Ironically, the peach I got at the same time and thought would cause the most trouble, is romping away, and currently has 7 peaches!

Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thank you!

[Nicos]

Normally I’d have wondered if you’d watered them enough over winter…but with all the rain we’ve had I would doubt it.
They’re not in pots are they?

[ameno]

How much root did they have when you planted them?
I have found that bareroot trees with not much root, especially not much in the way of fibrous roots (like the ones you by wrapped in plastic from supermarkets or hardware stores), tend to be a bit slow to get going.
My sour cherry when I first planted it produced a sparse covering of small leaves in the spring, and then didn't really grow at all until late June, when it finally started to actually grow shoots.

The plum which isn't producing any leaves on the top half may be dead up there, though. Try scratching the bark in a few places on the branches without any leaves and see if it's still green underneath. Also take a close look at the buds, to see if they are still there (sometimes they can get knocked off in transit, be shed due to water stress, or be eaten by birds). No buds will obviously mean no leaves or shoots (more mature branches have back-up buds hidden under the skin, but 1 year old branches usually do not, so if all of the buds are damaged or removed then that branch is as good as dead).