PUT DOWN THE SHOVEL.. AND STEP AWAY ...

trust me.. been there.. done that.. really made a mess of it ...

snow is a great insulator.... its not a cold issue ...

and.. since you probably cant see them.. you cant really dig carefully ...

dont fix.. what isnt broken ... and you have no proof anything is broken ... sooo .. dont break it ...

ken

Okay thanks. I was more worried about the weight of the snow breaking them, rather than the cold. Guess I'll just hope for the best!

If they are covered in snow, then the weight of the snow supports the weight of the snow. Yes, that makes sense to me. It is only after it starts melting and you have a cap of heavy ice resting solely on the shrub that it becomes a problem. However, then you can hopefully see what you are doing, and stand half a chance of doing more good than harm.

From my recollections of DC and snow, I'd be much more worried about my neighbors driving over them than the snow. Even if they are in the backyard, far away from any usual traffic.

Sounds like u know my neighbors. Whole purpose of my gardening is blocking them out of my yard someday.

FWIW...when for some reason I tried to grow Myrica ceriferas years ago...I found them to be incredibly prone to heavy snow breakage. As in, probably one of the worst BLE shrubs for it. The stems seemed exceptionally brittle at least on whatever cultivar I got at Woodlanders - forgot the name.

OTOH being completely buried in this type of powdery snow is just about the best thing for them, so as ken says, leave them be.

How convenient, I did not even realize there was already a thread about them bubbling up:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1604892/southern-wax-myrtle-full-size

Dave's picture is exactly what to expect if they get a certain size and we have a heavy, wet snow.

This doesn't pertain to the OP and his reason(s) for planting Myrica cerifera at all but: as I've gripped before, I worry that some garden tastemakers are promoting "natives uber alles" without knowing how these plants perform in a given climate. Virginia Beach got no snow in this recent blizzard, and heavy snowfalls are a truly rare occurrence down there. North of the Virginia Peninsula, they are not. And Myrica cerifera is only suitable up here, IMHO, as a botanical curiosity, not a general landscaping specimen which is what 99% of people buying shrubs want.

If you need a native broadleaved evergreen, Kalmia - provided you do not kill it by planting in swampy soil - is so much better. There are quite a few 6-10' specimens in the Elk Neck forests of Maryland (only reforested in the last century) that have survived many heavy snowfalls without crumbling to pieces. Alternately, there are slow growing native holly cultivars, too.

David what is a "BLE"? I googled around and still don't know.. Thanks for the comments though. I am worried about the breakage long term, I mean I'm trying to get a stand of them going so even if some break others will fill in.

the mountain laurel and hollies are great options however they both take forever to grow I think... I am hoping for privacy perhaps 5 years out... Without resorting to leYland cypresses... Which I do hate.

Forever is all relative. I thought Kalmias were slow too. My 'Sarah' is very slow. But my 'Bullseye' is growing pretty fast. Not as fast as Myrica, but tolerable. Hollies, once they get established, speed up to an acceptable rate. Depending on how small you want to keep them, you may even find them too fast. Again it's a trade off, you might take 2-3 years longer to get to the landscape effect you want...but it will be a permanent landscape effect! And not a pile of broken stems after the next heavy, wet snowfall LOL.

"From my recollections of DC and snow, I'd be much more worried about my neighbors driving over them than the snow"

LOL Mad_Gallica. Good one! But seriously, this particular shrub is amazingly susceptible to breaking under snow or ice loads. There could be some other species out there that's as bad but I haven't encountered it. Even my Grevillea juniperina held up somewhat better, although again, was probably too brittle-stemmed to maintain a normal shrub shape in this climate. (Not to mention, barely hardy enough to survive long-term, but that's another issue: the first cold winter [13-14] finished it off due mostly to cold, but the stem breakage surely helped seal its fate. I am retrying another Grevillea in a spot that is more sheltered from snow and cold. NB the area it is native to in Australia gets snow, but mostly a light, powdery snow. G. juniperina had survived the 2010 mega snow season, so being covered in snow for weeks was not, in and of itself, a problem.)

I did go out early in the snowstorm and shook some snow from larger BLEs. Then as the snow got colder and winds picked up, there was no further accumulation on the trees. Thankfully this snow was drier than most of the snow we get here. I have seen not a bit of damage on my live oaks from this one. They're still at least 80% foliated.