Thanks for your interest. I am in SW Ohio. 6a I have 40 arborvitae (21 different varieties) and 30 are spires. Here is what I have learned: -Buy small plants in spring. -Prune them down to 1 strong central leader. -Get them in the ground right away (or keep them in a shady spot - remember that small pots dry out really really quick). Many of my plants get moved to better locations, so don't feel pressure to make final location decisions right away. -Dig the hole large 2+ feet wide/ deep. I always add peat, sometimes sand. If you mix it well, this stuff will disappear into the soil nearly unnoticable. -Add mulch. I always add a circle of rocks around new plants so that I won't step on them. -Water deeply, then resist the urge to overwater them, but don't let them dry out. -During hot dry summer times, I water new plants 2x per week. -One year later (late winter) do some light pruning to focus energy on central leader. I also remove limbs from the bottom 10% of the plant. Repeat this for a few years. -No fertilizer needed. I usually water plants regularly for 3 years, and then only when things get really dry. -Every 2 or 3 winters, I will go through each plant and knock off the orange foliage and take out empty bird nests. I also have 30 chamaecyparis (23 different varieties) that do really well in my yard. Mostly cham. obtusa. I don't keep most of those as single leadered plants, but I do prune the heck out of them for the first few years, which I think is really important for getting adult plants with attractive shape and form.

Sadly, I have no warranty and I was not present when they installed it but I *think* it was ball and burlap. There are no obvious wounds where a leader was removed. It looks like it just grew kind of crooked and the thinning/dying sections are making it much more obvious. I dug down a little around the trunk (I didn't want to go too deep and potentially make things worse) and the root ball I can see looks like normal earth (not dust or mud). It was only installed one year ago. Not sure how old the actual plant is. I suspect you're right, ken_adrian, that they must have damaged the roots when they dug it up for sale. Embotrium, I have heard that trees are happier when they aren't mulched around the base - you would recommend adding mulch? Any particular type/depth of mulch? Is there anything else I can do besides cross my fingers and hope it recovers? I appreciate your responses and help!

Thank you everyone for the wonderful replies! RE: Dax. Thanks for the info on the spacing and size of Hetz Wintergreen. With the fast growth rate of the Hetz Wintergreen, it seems a 1 gallon pot would surpass my existing Smaragd's pretty quick. This is what I was hoping for. RE: Cearbhail. Haha, yes the happenings in my kitchen are strictly confidential! I appreciate your thoughts around keeping the existing Smaragds or even planting some between the existing plants. I'm just worried that they are such slow growers that I won't get the privacy I am hoping for over the next 10 years. I love the look of those Spartan Junipers. I will do a bit more research on them. Are yours in full sun? RE: Brothergarm. Any trouble cutting the multiple leaders off the Degroots? I would love to have a number of single leader Degroots at the side of my house but I wouldn't want to risk killing them by hacking off leaders. The bylaw here is 6' fence and we have a 6' fence. The extra foot of lattice would have been really nice. RE: Gardengal. Those European Hornbeams look great and I might consider them for my front yard. For now I'm hoping for a conifer backdrop to the backyard.

i would take a hand trowel or tablespoon.. and dig 3 to 6 inch holes in and around the gob planted.. AND FIND OUT ABOUT MOISTURE AT ROOT DEPTH ... tree time is counted in decades ... sometimes it can take a long time for damage to appear .. and we fail to look far enough back in time.. to find the issue ... watering trees can be hard on irrigation .. ensuring moisture is getting down into the root mass .. then there is the issue of how you planted... your timing in july was not prime ... but the other trees made it .. so you must be rather close on perfecting it ... see section one link below ... which leads us to pot problems on this one.. that the others didnt have .. did you do any root surgery ... or notice severely winding roots in the pot ... i have planted dozens of these .. and never fertd them .. ever ... and my garden is sand ... it neither here nor there.. it has nothing to do with what is going on .. but to me.. its a waste of money ... i dont know if it can recover ... only time will tell.. just check and perfect watering is about all you can do .. and if you think spraying them down for the suggested bugs will make a difference.. it sure wont hurt anything ... though you might want to look up how to ID those things are on your plants [its not easy] ... but since you are using just water.. does it really matter.... its not like you are using poison on a whim ... and also consider.. one of the issues with a monoculture.. is that if one or 2 of them had bugs.. most likely they all would ...and that doesnt seem to be what we are seeing .... you will probably know the end of the story in the high heat of august ... they will either make it thru that.. or they will brown out ... and if they die.. and you want to replant.. do it in the next proper planting season which is fall or winter.. depending where you are ... see section one at link below ... you can buy the replacements anytime .... but hold them over in the pots until proper planting time... if you wait to buy in fall.. you might not find what you want ... but you might also contemplate the monoculture aspect.. and plant something else in between ... as in fall.. you could move a couple of these to make a more artistic setting .. if you get my drift ... and.. they are thuja ... not cedar .. for future reference .... i know cedar is a common name.. but you may as well use the right name ... good luck ... ken https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub