OP and alley .... ALL green conifers are full sun .. zone appropriate .... of course ... as you add foo.. as in foo foo.. moving away from green.. you move into plant tissue that might not 'take' full sun ... and usually that means scorch.. either summer or winter ... but ... when you plant a tree/conifer... you completely and totally interfere with its roots system.. and it can take a few years.. for it to re-establish its roots mass ... and while it does that.. foo foo foliage can burn ... so daves solution ... is to shade it ... unprofessional.. i think.. has a pic of a 40 footer at hidden lakes.. dax has one also.. its in full sun... the plant itself.. does NOT need shade.. all you are doing is trying to protect it from your handling of it ... thru planting ... does that make any sense ...??? and .. many.. yellow tissue conifers.. will be GREEN!!! ... in too much shade.. its a real dichotomy as the sun burns them.. but they need it to color properly.. and it is impossible.. for us.. on words or pix alone.. to define whether any given shade.. in an given garden.. will grow a green or yellow plant ... as noted.. the 40 footer is at least 15 feet wide.. i really think.. presuming you stay at the house.. that you will be regretting planting it that close the power lines.. regardless.. do whatever makes you happy ... ken

For the most part a lot of us are growing many different conifer cultivars in a climate completely out of sync from where they originated from and are free to grow without our intrusion into their life style even though the zones are the same. If they survive the first three years consider yourself lucky. Most are planted where the new owner wants them with no consideration given to the plants likes and dislikes. Then the owner decides it needs to be moved. When that occurs more then likely the roots and root ball are compromised. Strike one against the plant. Secondly when planted the soil composition you have plopped the newbie in does not even remotely match it former soil composition where it originated. Amendments. black dirt, soil fertilizer spikes are the norm to get this thing jump started. Strike two against the plant. I won't go into why. Then we have a host of other strikes that could effect this plants survivability. Over or under watering. Usually over watering and the plant sits in a bog because of wrong soil composition. Not properly cloth shading those plants that require it. Insect control. Spider mites, scale and bag worms and a host of other friendly eaters that this plant doesn't have to deal with in its natural environment. Then the foul ball out. This has happened to me. Over a period of one to two days a nice healthy plant just dies for no reason. Haven't figured that one out yet. Whaas ...I don't care how many more days of cold, rain or dry winds you have. If your plant has a good healthy root base and has not been moved it is programed to live. Unless ,of course, it becomes a victim of out of zone conditions it cannot survive in. The only difference between mine and your plants is my growing season is longer with all other things being equal. Yours won't break bud until it is programed to do so and your temps and climate dictate that. Tornado I think in my above comments I have about covered everything that will damage 'Skylands'. Some of them just don't do well no matter what precaution you take to insure their survivability. There is something going on with yours. In some cases they cannot be explained. As Dax said and I agree ...go ahead and re-screen it. llinois-John...I apologist for hi-jacking your thread. We all will be forever in a learning stage. That's what this forum is for. Sometimes the subject matter gets stretched to the max for whatever reason. Hope you not totally confused. Dave

Buckeye: Skylands better than regular Oriental spruce? I will address just this basic question. It depends on what you want. If the golden color of the Skylands is what you want, that's it. If you want a regular beautiful green vigorous large landscape tree of virtually unmatched beauty, there is nothing any objective person could say can be more beautiful than the regular species Oriental spruce. There is some variation from seedling to seedling, most notably in the degree of weep in the secondary branches--a beautiful characteristic of this and several other kinds of spruces. Of the Oriental spruce cultivars I have seen, which grow somewhat slower than the species but which are not dwarfs, the "Nutans," The "Atrovirens," and the "Gowdy" are spectacular. As just about everyone who has visited this forum regularly for the past three years or so knows, I am a big fan of Norway spruce--at their best, with their very fast growth and wonderful weeping foliage--they can be truly majestic and graceful at the same time. But there is another part of me that can't love anything more than an Oriental spruce. And, in their native area, Oriental spruce can grow just about as large as Norway spruce. And here in the "Mid-Atlantic" region of the US, after a very slow start--until the trees are about 4 feet tall--the Oriental spruce will grow just about 85% as fast as Norway spruce. Anyone who wants a large ornamental conifer, there is nothing that can really reliably beat Oriental spruce. --Spruce

Im pretty sure the Skylands was under water in march, april, some of may, and prob part of feb as well(part of vernal pool). It was in an extremely wet area and I only added maybe 8, 5 gallon buckets of dirt before planting when I should have added over 100 in the area I was going to plant it. I have one area about 30 feet by 80 feet (of 2 acres)that I consider dry as it is slightly higher and has good drainage as it slopes. Can the soil dry in the summer? I would say yes but it is generally pretty wet(Ive dug up over 10 leeches and 6-7 mole salamanders when planting conifers). In 2014 and 2015 the water table didnt drop below 36". In Oct 2012 (typical dry hot ohio summer, spring wasnt super wet) it appeared to be down 12-15'. April 2013 it was back up to basically the surface. I do have a vernal pool that is about 100x120 at its largest and typically dries up in August. I first planted 4 years ago and have watered less and less. This year I probably watered 25 % of my trees about 5 times. I also gave most a pretty good water late in the fall since it was dry for a while. // here is (was) a vanderwolf pyramidal pine about 40feet from the skylands. it is also in a low spot (and my mound is nonexistant- the colorado spruce behind it is on a big mound and doing well) . This is about how my dead dwarf swiss stone pine looked as well. Lookin back on all my conifers that have died, they usually go out about like this. Pretty soon most what you see in this pic will be under a few inches of water. In this wooded area are about 10 "conifer islands". :)