Personally, i don't think anyone would want them. If you want to propagate them, just cut a stem and stick it in moist soil or water until it roots. I removed a large, old boxwood hedge in our yard many years ago. It was probably something like 40 years old. i know you do not want to destroy the boxwood, but that is how you get rid of it. We cut it all to the ground, then a localized dose of roundup, hitting only the boxwood stems. Any sprouts that then came up were hit with a spray of 2-4D (weed-b-gone). They died quicker than I thought they would. The remaining stalks were easily broken off and the roots were never a problem. They just rotted away. We used very little of the herbacide. The lawn grew back over the area within the year. If you are wanting to plant something new, then wait after the roundup and the dig out the roots as needed to make room for the new plantings. It was a fair amount of work, and a full pickup load of brush to dispose of. I really think this is the best way to get rid of the boxwood. DP

Shearing-type pruning,m which is often done on shrubs with tiny foliage, like box, is usually done, like Mike said, during the growing season. What you're contemplating is actual structural pruning. I'm no boxwood expert but I'd tend to think of this the way I do all regular pruning-best done late winter/early spring. +oM

Ken- I know there is a heart of gold under that rough exterior, lol. I just recently started up on gardenweb after a few years of absence, but I remember you fondly. Always good advice, if not blunt. I guess I am an old school kinda gal. If it's worked for me in the past I will continue to do it. The plants are 2ft tall and 1 1/2ft wide, with the root ball the same width and about 1ft deep....so a good "gob" of soil with each. They've been there 5 years. The project requires 50 shrubs, so 10 for insurance. I think it would work transplanting them now if I kept them moist and mulched, it's already getting cooler here. It's the winter dryness/winds I am concerned about. Maybe a burlap screen for the first year or two? Thanks for replying.

I know it exists but I never understood the big fuss with them because I myself have never seen them growing in naturalized areas and I’m outside all the time. I only saw one tiny seedling under a callery pear and that’s my only experience seeing them as nonplanted euonymus alatus. Maybe this happens in more warmer winter areas like where you are dbarron? Idk. Same with E. Japonicus and fortunei. Here they are highly valued ornamentals. Never seen seedlings of them either. Although the wintercreeper tends to get out of control. I know that for tree cuttings the older the parent plant is the harder to root. This doesn’t apply to shrubs?