Michelle, realize that my plants have all gone dormant mostly (even the evergreens look more semi evergreen, and the semis look dormant) - Yes, I did pull on the foliage and all the fan pulled out. One in fact had some mold growing on it. I think I allowed my pot ghetto, in their protected area, stay too long with the leaves on them, they were probably "warmer" than the ones in the ground, but not getting as much sunlight.
I think winter was too mild, and spring is waaay too early - and I planned for the usual snow cover and frigid temps and mulched and protected them accordingly.
I think I will do what you suggested, and dig them up after work tonight & rinse in bleach solution. I am hoping a warm day in the sunlight will help them too. It's only a couple of the dozen I have in pots, but like all of us, I hate to lose any.
This batch is mostly evergreens that I planned on planting last year. I was to pull the monster evergreen bushes at the front of the house, relandscape and put them all there in a sunny eastern protected area. But loosing two trees last year, and having to pay to get them removed meant that I didn't have the budget for doing this project, hopefully this year.....
Then I planned to leave them in my insulated garage all winter, until one developed rust - so I pulled them all outside - which got rid of the rust I am happy to see!
On a great note: I bought Tusk from the LA last year, and a few weeks after receiving it, it was doing poorly. Evey other plant I got from the LA, from that seller and others was doing great, except for Tusk and a seedling. I tried transplanting into different medium, tried all sorts of things, and I was losing it. So in desperation, I moved it into my front "dip" only bed. And slowly but surely, it survived.(seedling died, but that's OK) Mulched it well last fall, and lo and behold... there is some green there, and it lived! So I am really happy, even though I will be surprised if it blooms this year, I will continue to baby it and cross my fingers ~Jan
