since the snow just melted.. and presumably the soil is still near frozen ....

i would wait until you see swelling of the buds ... to make any determination that any given branch is dead ...

leaf loss on an evergreen during a bad winter does not mean the underlying buds.. or the branches .... are necessarily dead ... maybe they are.. maybe they arent ....

i think its way to early to come to any conclusions ..

ken

so boxwoods can grow new leaves? (think left boxwood in the planter in my porch pic, ken).

didn't know if they did or not.

i would wonder more about winter root damage in your cement 2 gal pots left on the front porch all winter..

before i would wonder about leaf lose on a plant in the ground ...

i hate pots.. and i have killed many things in winter.. in pots.. in my z5 ...

in other words.. i am suggesting you are comparing apples and oranges as to cause and effect ...

ken

well jeez..clear as freakin' mud.

they are the only two pots i own and i can see now they may be the death of me. LOL

ps did you know you are a freak that you can tell that is a 2 gal pot from one photo??? hahaha

OP's plants are in mother earth .. i suggest its winter burn.. and may or may not be death ...

your failures are in relatively small cement pots 5 feet above mother earth [they dont look like one gal size.. nor 5 gal size ... somewhere in between.. ] ... you have dormancy issues in pots in z5.. that lead to death.. plus.. winter damage.. plus.. potentially a whole lot more issues ... which is why.. in a post of yours i recommended a pot in pot system.. and burying the pot in mother earth in late fall ...

you seemed to indicate that hers are dead like yours.. i just dont think we can jump there.. YET ... especially w/o a picture ...

ANY evergreen-type plant.. can releaf .. IF the plant is otherwise not dead .... presuming the buds were not killed along with the leaves ....

so we have to figure whether the buds are dead.. and only time will tell that ...

ken

thanks, Ken, for the reply. i won't be cutting any branches yet a while as it is too cold, soggy and we still have some snow cover out there. time may be my friend. hope so, anyway.
the leaves are that lovely shade of pale brown that dead boxwood gets, but i shall try to be optimistic about survival in the long run.
i have another boxwood in a sheltered spot near the front door. it was fine & dandy -- until we had to have the whole roof raked off from the 3 accumulated feet of snow. the dear boys who did the job managed to whump the snow fiercely upon that shrub, and it is just now showing thru what was an 8-foot pile. looks like one major branch is possibly kaput, but too early to know for certain. le sigh.