According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, weigela is hardy to Zone 5 which means they should survive winter outdoors in your Zone 7. Chances are they'd be better off in a larger container but 12" is still a good size. Tip the container on its side somewhere out of the sun and you'll have a better chance of the plants surviving the cold weather.

Indoors in your laundry room at 50 degrees does not provide "dormant" conditions. Since the plants are dormant, they shouldn't require water until after you plant them next spring.

Good luck!

they are shrubs.. not babies..

plant them in mother earth .. and let her care for them ... she is so much better at it, than we are ....

else i suspect.. they will die.. from too much love ...

dormant planting is the absolute best.. and proper way to do it ... and all you can think.. is to disturb that process ...

you dont mention how big they are.. but a 12 inch pot is probably too small ... and you dont mention the media you used ... i worry that you will root rot them with improper drainage.. and too much watering.. too much love.. one might say ...

they are shrubs.. not perennials.. so the link gives you all you need to know ...

and one thing for sure.. they are not houseplants ... outside ... regardless of which method you choose ....

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Thanks for the link...sorry they are bare rooted about a foot and a half tall with one main ? I thought that even shrubs are considered perennials, so forgive my lack of knowledge. I was planning to put them in a larger container coming Spring attached to a wall that i want to put up to hide my neighbors messy back yard as they do construction.

Not to worry and no "lack of knowledge" :-)) Shrubs ARE perennials - any plant that lives longer than two years is considered a perennial, although the term has most commonly come to be applied to flowering herbaceous perennials.

Ken tends to get a bit hung up on terminology :-))

If you want them to be containerized plants next season, then do not plant directly into the ground but in containers now. A 12" pot should be more than adequate -- all you really need is sufficient space to accommodate the existing root ball. Use a good quality, barky, fast draining potting soil and then heel or sink the pots into the ground outdoors.

When the weather is appropriate and the soil workable next season, you can remove and pot up to an adequate size for longer term growth.

Thanks just finished planting them into the ground in a shaded area, before i read your message...oh well..

Not the end of the world :-)) Just dig them up and pot in a appropiately sized containers before they start pushing too much new growth next spring.

Not the end of the world :-)) Just dig them up and pot in a appropiately sized containers before they start pushing too much new growth next spring.

Where should i put the container ??? outside? inside a cool laundry room? should they be watered sparingly, so they don't suffer?

Don't need to do it now that you've already got them in the ground....wait until early spring, like I said in my previous post :-)

They won't have accomplished much root growth between now and then and should lift and pot up pretty easily.

boothbay,
I don't know where you come up with this thing for your laundry room! Just fyi, we are still planting away up here in Boston. We should finish woodies and perennials this week, but I know bulb planting will take us into Nov.

Since you are so keen to bring things into your laundry room (I am joshin' you here, wink, wink!) you should get into TROPICALS. Colocasia, Canna, brugmansia, all these will be more than willing to take up space in your laundry room. ;-)

I don't know where you come up with this thing for your laundry room! Just fyi, we are still planting away up here in Boston. We should finish woodies and perennials this week, but I know bulb planting will take us into Nov. >>>

Ha,ha!! when i mention my Laundry room which is down my unheated basement, it would be for temporary storage, until I have something built in the spring with a wall and containers, where there will be their 'final resting place." BTW, I have Canna's in front of my home growing up to 8' in clusters in a 3' x 3' corner. I could imagine digging up all those 'bulbs' that keep multiplying later in NOVember. Oh yes, i live in the new york city area.