Planted those too :(

Junipers are exceeding cold tolerant! Below freezing temperatures are no deterrent to their survivability :-) Just make sure they are well watered in and mulched to hold off any frost heaving.

btw 'dormancy' is relative when it comes to evergreens. Not at all the same as with deciduous material.

I would actually have more concerns about the unplanted groundcover types in the breezeway. They are far more likely to encounter colder temps with respect to their root system than those planted in the ground. That inground soil mass has huge insulating properties and even when frozen solid (nowhere close to that yet....takes weeks of freezing temps) does not drop a lot below freezing.

Thanksoso you very much! Having a heart "attack" here lol

Do you think I should water them more? It's been 4-5 days since planted and we had some rain before all this temp craziness.

Also, tomorrow we're supposed get one 43 degree day before it drops back down to low 20s and 14-17 degree nights . Would it be risky to plant 4 more in the ground? Same with the lemon thread false cypress? The yellow/green looking one in the Pic?

Plant them all now - or as soon as you can :-) Much safer for them in the ground and these are very frost hardy plants......a few cold nights is not going to bother them at all.

I can't tell you if you need to water more or not. Anything newly planted should be watered in well immediately after planting and as often as necessary after that to stay properly hydrated. This is even more important during very cold weather and/or windy conditions as more plants will dry out or desiccate in cold weather than they will suffer from cold damage.

I'll try to protect them from wind and ice maybe with a plant cover or burlap if I can get to it. Hope that helps :)

Thanks so much Ken! I feel a little better now. I'm in New Hampshire 2-3hrs away from Canadian boarder.

We do have brutal cold winds. Do you thinks I should at least wrap the new spiral shrubs in burlap or shrub protective sleeves? To protect from that wind and ice buildup?

I wouldn't call me watering those shrubs... A good soaking. But it rained all night and into late morning hahaha

I also added a good size bucket of water today to them and the water soaked in quickly. I was affraid I didn't give them a proper soaking.

Oh well, we'll see what happens I guess ☺

Give them each a burlap screen on posts so it isn’t touching the plant but that will keep it out of direct sunlight this winter. I planted a juniper last fall about this time in full sun and it had severe scorching by spring. Some of that might have been that last winter was amazingly difficult even on established evergreens in most of NEw England, but it would be better safer than sorry. Both are totally hardy here, but with root systems that aren’t established in conjunction with our frozen ground, it is easy for them to become too dry in winter when the soil moisture is all frozen. Less sun while the soil is frozen decreases moisture loss. I live a bit north of Concord, NH, so my climate is a whole lot more similar to yours than GG48’s is. ; >)

Her advice to not let them dry out (stick your finger down into the soil to check until it is too frozen) and to mulch well are both good suggestions to help keep both temperature and moisture even so you are less likely to get frost heaves.

As Ken suggested, healing them in pot and all into any spot is fine for this winter, especially if you offer them a shade screen and mulch.

Thank you all for fantastic ideas and making me feel better. I'll wait till spring to see what happens ☺

JoAnna, the cold caught more than you off guard. I just realized this morning that I left some Bridal Veil asters out in their pots. Their roots have now been exposed to the low air temps, which is worse than being in the ground. My best hope is that our house is usually a few degrees higher than the weather stations due to our location. this morning we were supposed to be down to 15 in our area. I'm really hoping we didn't get that low! Going now, too late potentially, to get them in the garage for the winter.

A house near us always wraps their long skinny junipers with burlap every winter. NHBabs suggestion up there is a good one!

When I saw this, JoAnna, I thought of this thread. From UNH extension and includes many of the ideas suggested here for evergreen winter shrub care and adds a few more.

https://extension.unh.edu/blog/how-do-i-protect-my-trees-and-shrubs-winter-damage

This is a very good article! I learned a lot.

It addressed deer, too which I thought might be a bigger problem than planting time and methods.

Hey, just a little update! I know it's still early to tell if they'll be ok but I've unwrapped my spirals from burlap and all other small junipers a week ago. Besides a few tiny brown branches on tall spirals they look fantastic! They look well hydrated, nice AND soft branches. So far no big damage.

I didn't get a chance to plant two larger junipers and have wrapped the pots in cloth and put them in brown leaf bags, filled the bags with leaves to cover them completely and left them in the garage all winter. Those look perfect with soil still very moist. I'll be planting those next week.

Thanks so much for everyone's help!!!

Hope this helps many more!

you will have to harden off the bagged conifers to light.. humidity ... and temp ...

you cant just take them from the dark bag.. and throw them into sunlight ... or extreme temp changes ...

it might be time to remove the bags.. and leave them in the garage ... to adjust to temps ...

and then in a week or two.. depending on ambient temps.. move them outside into full bright shade.. maybe against the north side of the house ... to start acclimating to light ...

and then morning or evening sun ... etc ...

i dont recommend you just rip them out of the bag and garage .. and slam them into the ground ...

the key term is: HARDENING OFF .. to each changed variable... link below ...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=HARDENING+OFF&ia=web