| At ACE Hardware a 3' x 24' roll of burlaps costs $13. That is only $1.65 per yard. Do not use the plastic. It will kill your plants. It will create a greenhouse and cook them. It will keep rain of them and dry them out. What you need is shade from winter sun when the ground is frozen and protection from the winter winds when the ground is frozen. Burlap can do this without any plastic. Leave the tops open. Do not cover the plants. Just put up wind breaks and shade, but do not cover. When I was first planting our landscaping, I put in larger plants in the front and I never protected anything on the front of our home which is the south. But in back on the north, I would put in very young plants and would protect them the first year with 2' x 8' pieces of plywood that I had lying around. I would put up stakes and fasten the plywood so that it acted like a 2' high fence on the south side of the new plantings. I don't know if I needed it, but it worked. If these are small greenhouse plants they will need more protection. If they are larger field grown plants they should be OK if they are appropriate to your area. The idea is to buy plants that are hardy for the areas where they will be planted. There are plants that are hardy for Minnesota, so your cold NC is a walk in the park for those plants. Evergreen azaleas typically take 3 years from when they were removed from the greenhouse to develop their full hardiness. Some rhododendrons are very hardy and most deciduous azaleas are very hardy. | 
