Unless you are one of those rare, mysterious people who is experienced at keeping plants alive in non-draining materials, you definitely want a drainage hole in your container. :-)

Someone who grows in a zone more similiar to yours can better answer your more specific questions.

Now how could i proofread that so many times and still mess it up? Sheesh. That should say:

Unless you are one of those rare, mysterious people who is experienced at keeping plants alive in non-draining containers, you definitely want a drainage hole in your container.

Definitely use a soiless potting mix to create a very free-draining environment. I have started using Promix and adding some additional sphagnum peat moss to lower the acidity for acid-lovers if needed.

With a west-facing balcony, you would get the brunt of the summer winds, but you would be somewhat spared of the winter winds that I get by facing NE, often churned up by the infamous Atlantic Ocean Nor'easters.

However I would still recommend you putting some sort of windscreen around your babies in winter. I have been finding that the smaller-leafed evergreens like azaleas and hollies, etc. (and this would definitely apply to boxwoods), seem to do worse with winter burn and dessication (even with the use of Wilt Pruf) than their larger-leafed cousins. The windscreen should be kept around the plants until almost March because I have found the worst damage seems to come in February, mainly because the days are getting longer and the sun + wind + dry air will negatively impact those little leaves, especially if the container soil is frozen (or close to it - ie., being frozen doesn't necessarily have a negative impact on the plant if it is hardy, but can impact if the soil starts going through a freeze/thaw cycle).

Many many boxwoods in the ground around here had some awful winter damage (usually seen in sections where one main branch and its offshoots would brown out). But keeping yours protected on the balcony (and trying to make sure that snow and ice don't sit for any length of time on them), should help.

And as luxum so succintly observed DO put drainage holes in those containers. Your plant won't live without them. ;-)

LOL! luxum, I had to read your two posts 3 times before I could discover the difference between the two! I didn't realize you had made a mistake the first time. (This has to be another menopause day for me.)