One of the hardest questions to answer here on the forum.

A few basic questions to get started.

Were they B&B or potted?

What time of the year did you buy and plant them?

You need to hold the nursery accountable if guaranteed for a year. Of course if they were end of the year sale plants the guarantee might not apply. Check you receipt for the details on the back.

Dave

This post was edited by Davesconifers on Fri, May 31, 13 at 14:50

where are you..

define winter

where they properly watered all last year ..

properly mulched???

whats teh deal with all the % signs next to your name ...

being evergreen.. i swear they can be dead for along time.. before the needles finally desiccate ... given a cool fall.. it could have died last summer.. eked its way thru fall.. and with teh suspended animation of winter.. retained green .. and then winter freeze dried it all.. and as soon as warmth started in spring.. the needles browned.

if there was absolutely no bud extension this spring.. they were dead last fall ... or winter finished their spirit ...

did you amend the planting hole..

define your watering protocol ...

etc.. other than saying they browned and died.. you havent given us much.. a pic would be gold

ken

Drat. I posted a long reply a few days to this and for some reason it didn't save. Argh! It even had pictures! I was wondering why I hadn't gotten any responses...

Here are answers to your questions:

-They were potted.
-Bought and planted in mid/late May.
-The nursery guarantees plants for one year--50% rebate in store credit (pretty pitiful, right?!). We were a few DAYS past that deadline, so they're offering nothing. I'm trying to decide the approximate probability that this is my fault versus their fault before I post some negative reviews. I want to know how angry I should be.
-We're in Western NY state, so it's real winter, but this one was not especially cold. Nor dry. Nor wet.
-We're very good about watering. We planted a lot of other perennials last year in the same area, and I believe 100% of them came back and are thriving (possibly lost one--can't remember exactly how many penstemon I planted). We watered the trees more than the rest of the bed, with good soakings at least 1/2 times a week, more or less depending on rain and temps.
-Yes, they were mulched.
-No idea about the %. I fixed it--thanks!
-Planting hole (and entire bed) heavily amended with compost. Both home-grown and store bought.
-I believe the two dead ones never showed any new growth this spring (the living one has lots of buds). So I think you're right they died some time ago. Here are some photos:

For what it's worth, I generally have very good luck with not killing plants. It's rare for me to lose them, and I usually assume it's a poor fit of plant and soil/climate. I would do that with these, except that they were about $100 each (!!! We used this nursery because of gift certificates.), and the owner assured us they were both good choices for our area.

Most likely plants that sizr in pots had circular root growth,
That needs to be untangled and spread out.I also stongly recommend Superthrive root stimulator when planting . Being in my area very simular I planted numerous similar conifers last fall not as large and all survived with a little stress showing this spring but all are doing real well now.Some were as large as yours a cedar that is not recomended for this zone and it was undaunted with winter .

Thanks for your response, gamekeeper. I saw no signs of circular roots when plating. We did loosen the root balls, as a matter of habit. I have never used a root stimulant, though. I've always just made sure that the dirt surrounding the new plant is the highest quality possible.

There are a couple of issues that cause me concern. First is the amending - generally speaking, heavily amended soil is NOT desirable, especially if confined to the planting holes. Second I would wonder how deep those little guys were planted or if they settled some after planting.......this is one of the issues re: over-amended soils - shrinkage or compaction.

Finally, woody plants are much more critical of water issues than herbaceous plants (like the surrounding perennials). I know a great portion of the country experienced extreme drought last year and even a short duration of inadequate water can sometimes have longlasting effects. And do not show up very promptly, either. One could also argue the benefits of Superthrive as a root stimulator...it claims far more than that and at about 3 times the price of other root stimulators.

Regardless, I would take your nursery to task. Good retail nurseries offer full (100%) refunds on nursery stock (trees and shrubs) for whatever reason for failure. And while they do have time limits, most would honor that for a week or two beyond the 12 month deadline.

For a profitable retail nursery, returns typically account for around 2% or less of gross sales and anything below 5% is considered an acceptable cost of doing business. It more than makes up for in goodwill and customer satisfaction than what it costs.

Thanks, gardengal. I understand your concerns. I don't think you would be quite as distrustful about the heavily amended soil if you saw what we were starting with--rock hard clay that's difficult to distinguish from stone. And we amended the entire area, not just the planting holes. We actually checked to see if there was problematic settling, but there wasn't. All I can say about the watering is that we were very consistent during the drought last summer.

The nursery is apparently going to do NOTHING for us. Can't even get the manager to talk to me about it. All I can do is to write some negative reviews and take my business elsewhere. Oh well.

Thanks for the help.