JFW432, it should be much easier on you, and you will not have to wait all that long if you wait until this hottest part of the Summer's heat breaks to plant those trees you posted in your photo on July 14th. If you plant them when daily high temps exceed 95 degrees,and if your soil is well draining they will need much more watering. Or if you plant them now, you might not see much growth out of them for several more years than if they were planted in your early fall months, or whenever the daily high temps do not climb above 98 degrees F. at those times in your area. Another thing to remember, is that GGs will change color in the winter if they are exposed to more winter sun and and wind. Planting them in a more sheltered area like with a north western exposure that where they are sheltered from large trees or buildings and fences directly to thier South and East, these GGs would be sheltered enough to avoid the winter browning problems mentioned above. Or even planting them where they will get morning sun and afternoon shade will help them out in your area. So in summary try to avoid planting them in area where they will be exposed to Southern or direct western and Northwestern exposure. That is if you agree it will bother you to see them change to their redish bronzy brown color that the other people are complaining about. In sandy soil at any location, use a non-burning slow release Osmokote type fertizer and water your trees daily for the first 2 weeks after planting. Then begin to slowly decrease the watering until you are only watering them twice a week. Keep watering them twice a week for about then next 6 months if your area is not getting regular rain events. after than your trees should be fine if you gradually slow down on the watering frequencly until you get find they are still doing Okay when you water them only once a week. Continue that weekly watering Unless you enter a period of frequent and sufficient rains, so much so that you can decrease the watering, or at such times in Summer of 2010 when the heat returns and the tree might need to again be supplimentally watered at least twice a week or more depending on how quickly draining the soil in in their planting bed. Osmokoke usually is sold in 3,or 4, and if I remember right even longer effective durations each per application. In my are I would only need to apply the Osmokote in late march and early September. Since your growing season is probably long than in my area, you might need to apply it 3 times or even 4 depending on how well draining your soil is. If your planting bed is slow to drain, then ignore the above suggested watering and feeding schedule, and test your tree's planting bed for their moisture level before giving them any more water. I say that because these trees roots will suffer signicantly is they are planted in clay soil which drains slowly and leaves the soil where they are planted saturated for extended hours of time. In moderate to heavy soil beds your goal would be to only keep the soil slightly moist and make certain that soil has become fairly dry before supply another application of supplimental watering. Also if the soil is clay do not add amendents soil to the back fill when planting the trees. If you want to give your trees the benefit of good compost soil, apply that compost as a mulch on top of your planting bed, and cover that compost with a thin layer of with a shredded ceder mulch if your need to prevent errosion from occuring in the planting bed or beds. Just keep both the compost and the mulch about 4 to 5 inches away from the trunks of your trees. Then here's another suggestion, keep in mind that on GGS any branch that you cut back to the trunk will remain bare. I mean, that no new branch will grow to fill that area of the trunk in. So if you want to do any pruning on your GGS never cut deeper than the green leaf folliage. Even if for any reason some of the the lower branches of your trees go dry and drop their leaves do not cut those branches off. You can instead simply water the tree more appropriatly long enough and the tree should at the appropriate time award you with growing new leaves on that previously dead looking branch. Oh almost forgot. The branches on these trees will die if large dogs are allowed to spray them. Such constant applications of the high content ammonia will begin to show signs of making the leaves turn red and then black just prior to when entire branch will die. If the soil is in the tree's planting bed is saturated with such high contents of ammonia all season long then in the next most stressful season some of the worst affected trees will be more prone to die no matter how much you attempt to care for them.

hi IMHO.. normal early spring growth phase .... was just out looking at my 50 .. and they look exactly the same .... and i dont have a concern in the world about them ... if you go out at dusk ... or dawn.. when your eyeballs can open wide ... you will see that they do NOT appear as yellow ... ken

I had 8 'Green Giant' arbs moved about 10 or 12 weeks ago. Mine were probably all between 10 and 14 feet tall. I had them moved to a friend's house down the street. I also had 9 other trees moved around my property the same day. A bobcat, tree spade, and a crew of 3 cost me $1100 for the day here in suburban Atlanta. None of the 17 trees that were moved seem to know any difference - they all look great! I'm sure seasonal timing and the fact that we've had lots of rain the past few months haven't hurt. And I suppose things could still go south, but I see no indication of any problems at all. I think the trick is to find somebody with a tree spade that's big enough. I think I remember somebody saying you want about 10" of tree spade diameter for every 1" of tree trunk diameter. I believe that spade that was used for my job was a 36", even though some of the trees were probably pushing a 4" or possibly even a 5" trunk diameter. Matt

Thanks Dave... Yep, the guy who sold them to me when I bought them said "I think they're getting too much water, they need to get in the ground" So I bought them and took them home and put them in the ground. Then today he looked at the clippings and said "you haven't watered them since Saturday, you need to water them every other day and babysit them" Total contradiction.....It's apparent he has no clue, he's setting up a "blame the buyer" excuse to not honor the warranty. It fries my bacon....and yes, he seemed like an idiot. I'd rather trust you guys here who have dealt with Thuja Green Giants before. Is it possible that at my elevation (about 6500 ft.) that they could have plenty of water, but are being killed by the sun due to higher sun exposure rates due to altitude? Are they sensitive to that? (as in it's easier for a person go get a sunburn at high altitude) By the way, this particular nursery was the only one of 5 in my general area that even carried the Green Giants. Maybe that should tell me something.