looking pretty good to me .. get some good pruning shears.. all the brown is dead .... just trace back to the live stem and snip out.. just damage from transportation and planting ... the yellowish color and red tips is NORMAL ... remove all the grass like the other post where i went on and on about how to do it ... do i need to find that old post for you??? are they growing.. ABSOLUTELY ... take any good branch.. trace down .. from the green stem.. to where last years is brown.. to where it changes to another type of brown.. and you will then be able to differentiate 3 years growth .. perhaps your expectations are a bit high.. those are big plants.. which you just planted 7 months ago .. they may appear to look like nothing is happening.. for a year or two after transplant.. then.. once the roots are fully established.. they will really get going ... a couple feet per year ... they grow from the minute the soil thawed until the soil freezes.. so just dont worry about it ... now.. get rid of the grass... before some weedwhacking nut does more damage than good and water.. WHEN THEY NEED WATER .... nice floating garden .... good luck ken

Eh, no, Grae. Per the thread, still quite readable, they simply don't grow at all well on the east coast of the US. Anywhere far north enough to be sufficiently cool in summer, they can't survive the winters for the long term. (there are odd reports of one on Martha's Vineyard that dies back in cold winters. Hardly ideal) For probably 40 years at least, fancy nurseries from DC to NYC have "imported" them from PNW wholesalers. Scarcely any over 4m in size are known. Almost all eventually die. In fact the one surviving in Silver Spring, MD, is in a somewhat shaded spot, and I believe that's true of the Baltimore tree too, although I haven't seen it in person. "Large trees soak[ing] up huge volumes of water" is probably beneficial for the survival of a summer dry species, when trying to grow it in a climate where tropical storms can drop 20cm+ of rain at a time! Coupled with extremely high temperature, it fuels the root rot organisms that kill them.

the problem with evergreens... conifers.. is there can be damage... and the darn evergreen.. stays green ... struggling.. until the dry winter ... eventually turns them brown... then we are left.. wondering when the actual problem occurred ... i still suspect injury from wholesaler.. seller.. however it got home. at planting.. etc ... trying real hard to be optimistic here ... btw ... with tip leaf problems... its rarely a whole branch like this ... its usually only the tips.. 6 to ten inches ... i dont treat my plants.. they are free range.. i will leave that discussion to others ... if there is a warranty issue.. talk with your seller ... ken

I'm confused. If you removed ALL the old miracle grow potting soil, you bare rooted it. Yes, you can overwater with 5-1-1 and gritty mix. I almost offed 3 Japanese Maples because I didn't think there was any way that the Gritty Mix could hold enough water. I put some in an empty pot and saturated it and left it for a week. I overturned the pot and was surprised at how much moisture was retained. Granted there was no plant sucking up the water... Another thing. Did you "chopstick" the soil to eliminate any air pockets in the soil? Large air pockets will cause roots to dry out and die.