I have had box living in containers for years but I live in a climate with relatively mild winters. They are well suited to container growing and need far less watering than pots of annuals. It will need clipping to keep it neat.

I don’t live in such a cold climate as you and @floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK do but in my experience Boxwood / Buxus is a good candidate for living in a container. Easy to trim to a pyramid shape & great for holiday decor. I’m looking at your pic & wondering if the plant is too low in pot. Since you just planted it, wondering if you can manage lifting it out & adding more soil to bottom. It’s going to settle anyway & if more soil medium in pot it will extend life in pot. About the pot - it looks like might be a styrene or plastic pot. Would be more protection for roots if it were a heavier walled pot. But, rather than moving it into garage, maybe in the coldest part of your winter it can simply have a frost blanket draped over it? If the pot could be wrapped with burlap or some such, maybe it could winter in place. I cannot post my comments without adding that you are a wonderfully kind neighbor to this woman. My parents, who lived several states away from me, had neighbors like you. They were treasures. I try to pay it forward in my neighborhood now.

Zone 5 is too low to leave outside unprotected over winter. And wrapping with burlap is not enough when there is a potential for temps to drop to -20F. Moving into the garage for winter is a much better plan.

Otherwise, boxwood is ideal for a container. It will need a larger one in a couple of seasons (Spring 25?) so think about ease of moving and consider a pot with wheels or low, moveable stand with casters you can set the pot on.

' I don’t live in such a cold climate as you and floral ..' Ummm? Check my zone.

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK oops! A misread on my part! My eyes read uk z8/9 but my mind went to our friend in Canada z5. 😳

😉

Thanks for the tips. I'll definitely put it in the garage after holiday decorations. It is too prominent to attempt to wrap up outside aesthetically. Yes, current pot is not thick. I'll make sure the step-up pot is thicker. Some of the pricier resin ones look like they would protect the roots well. In the past when I overwintered things in my old colder garage, I stuck pots in bins of styrofoam peanuts. Maybe I'll do that with this one in her garage..

@kw, Thanks for the kudos. Yeah, I like helping, but more gardening and plant shopping is a bonus for me!

I've had two "Winter Gem" boxwoods living in pots on my deck for a year now. In the winter, I put them in the attached garage. I gave them a little water a few times. They were just fine in the spring.

Hello Wendy, I live in Massachusetts 6b, and I grew small boxwoods (variety...I don't know) in window boxes last September to May, and they survived. I was happy to have a little bit of life in front of the windows during the winter. I'm wondering how you made out since your zone is a little colder.

Used to bring all my containerized plants in the garage, but started t leave them out in zone 7a/b (Euonymus, Aucuba) and they have been survivng on the deck, in the yard, the freakin deer would eat them anyway.

I have an even easier solution. I cut branches from evergreen trees at first frost and stick them in all my pots. Mixing types and colors, sometimes adding hydrangeas. They look splendid till spring when I put in something different but atill no watering, like succulents.

Yeah, me too at my old house when woods were all around me and I had tons of evergreen shrubs and trees. I used to love gathering greens in December. If my winterberry was deer-eaten, I would throw in a fake berries and fake dusty miller to add a bit.

Now I have very slim pickings for that at sterile condo-land!

Glad this thread woke up. I need the reminder to bring her boxwood in the garage in January. So far the weather has been pretty mild, but it can turn on a dime here!

In this case of this neighbor, the evergreen is intended to be year round.