is oct in the houst, texas area a good time to plant shrubs. i have some boxwood shrubs and several oak trees in 10 gallon buckets that i bought summer of 2002, also the local nurseries are having the 50 to 70% sales now on most landscape items. is it a good time to put them into the ground? its about the 70's and the heat is behind us now. it won't get into the 30's till jan.
Its a good time. Just plenty of water to get the soil soaked good and compacted tight around the roots so they will not dry out. Keeping the root ball at least damp throughout the winter will help also, being that you will not have the moisture frozen around it during the winter. Up here, we can have frozen dirt around the root ball well into the end of March.
I always have had good luck with planting everything but spruce in the fall. In New York State there usually is a lot of moisture in the fall before everything freezes. That way the trees get a good start. I planted over fifty trees last fall and lost two to deer. The rest are doing very well.