If "indoors" means inside the house these should be put in a cooler area more like outdoors. In fact, in USDA 7 they probably could (or should) be outdoors now. Plunge pots in loose material like bark, sand or sawdust if worried about frost injury. Do not prune tops, new root growth prompted by overwintering buds.

These should be able to grow for years before aging enough for renovation pruning to appear desirable. And even then probably best to cut out only a few of oldest, least fresh looking branches in a given year.

bboy...thanks. I have them in a well-lighted 60° room, and they're tented with large clear plastic bags for humidity control. I expect they'll go outside in a couple of weeks, as soon as an unusually cold snap goes by.

The pruning instructions I've read say that the annual coppicing is to encourage the more colorfully-barked young growth the plant is known for. Not true? I've never grown them before.

The tender growth that emerges under hot/humid conditions will be very sensitive to high light, wind and temps below 40. Keep this in mind so you don't end up with dead sticks and brown droopy foliage when you put them out. Coppicing works fine for mature plants, but these guys need some foliage to get established. Pruning them now will severely stress them by forcng them to produce new growth by tapping into reserves they don't have AND removing buds that will yield leaves.

Well, it looks like I've managed to kill all 5 of them. I took them out of their tents in early March, and then put them outside, in a carport for a few weeks, where they got some protection from wind and direct sun, and never saw frost. They had leafed out nicely, and looked great. Then I moved them to a less protected position, with morning sun, and a little wind protection. The leaves started to turn red and get puckery. The sticks on two of them turned black at the top, and the leaves fell off. The same is happening to the other 3. They were potted up in 1.5-2 gallon pots, with ProMix cut with 25% MiracleGro potting soil. They each got a couple of doses of very dilute compost tea, and plenty of water.

FWIW, Willow cuttings and Hydrangea cuttings and bareroots went through the same routine, but in 1/2 gallon plant bands, and are flourishing.

Any ideas how I croaked them? I'm going to pull one to look at the roots, but let the others sit for a while to see if they can recover.

I bought some barerooted stock one year and had them fail also. This one may be touchy about being barerooted.

Not the same species but when I first potted up a similarly-sized Cornus sericea bareroot a couple years ago, I only put it in a 1-gallon equivalent pot and added no fertilizer that first year. I also didn't water it too much figuring that it needed to grow some more roots before it could adapt to a higher water level. I potted to a larger pot before winter (10") and kept it outside that first winter but out of the wind. The following spring, I potted it to a 12" and by fall, I took it up to a 16" where it is right now (this is permanently potted).

Not sure what to tell you but checking the root system is a good idea.