Boxwood question

RuHappy69 · Sun Dec 18, 2011 9:54 pm

I live in zone 6 and was wondering if I have to wait until spring to plan Boxwoods? If I go to a home store and they still have some I can probably get them cheap now so I was just curious.

bullthistle · Sun Dec 18, 2011 11:19 pm

You can plant anytime but now is the best time as long as you do it right. Water at least once every two weeks if no rain and when you backfill the amended soil, with compost or manure and a handful of bone meal, make certain you use the end of your shovel to tamp down the soil.

rainbowgardener · Mon Dec 19, 2011 3:50 am

Really, BT, here in zone 6, you would still plant it now? Granted the ground isn't really frozen hard yet, but we will have few nights above freezing from now until March, in my part of zone 6. Can it really put down roots in those circumstances?

I would have said no.... up until mid-Nov maybe, but now seems like 4-6 weeks too late.

tomc · Mon Dec 19, 2011 7:01 pm

Box, or just about anything hearty to the zone it is to be planted in, is going to live every other winter of its lifetime outdoors. This winter is no different.

What the nursery (who also grew the tree outdoors) does you too should do, namely make sure its not going through a winter season in standing water.

Pruned short feet and long enduring puddle is a stressful combination.

I might wrap azalea-rhododendron for a first winter to keep a few more of its evergreen leaves, with some canvas.

rainbowgardener · Tue Dec 20, 2011 4:26 am

Box, or just about anything hearty to the zone it is to be planted in, is going to live every other winter of its lifetime outdoors. This winter is no different.

I think it is different. After a season of growing, it will be rooted in to the soil where it is and that will be true forever after, barring disasters. Right now if you put it in a planting hole, it has no connection to the soil it is in and I don't think in freezing weather and dormancy it will be able to grow any.

lily51 · Tue Dec 20, 2011 10:00 am

Don't know the weather exactly in NJ, but seems its. Lose to oho's, getting roots established is the main thing to a newly planted anything, that might be a challenge as it s ows, freezes(the ground) , I don't even like to do such planting tooate into the fall, so at this late date , I'd wait till spring.