Like Dan alluded to, I'm a little uncertain about some of your facts. Here are some questions that might help us: 1. How much water are these trees getting? And, how often are you watering them? Have you tested the soil moisture levels at an appropriate depth to see how much water is needed? 2. Why is there no grass around the trees (especially in that last picture)? 3. Is your soil compacted? I sure get that feeling when I look at the pictures. 4. It may be a little late now, but why haven't you mulched around the trees? 5. Why have the trees been hacked back so awfully? Were the limbs dead?

I had a seedling pop up at the edge of my pond amongst the coral rocks. I figured I'd leave it there as it looked interesting. When in one year, it grew to 5' and lush. I took it out because I didn't want the roots to invade the lining of the pond. Well I found that the root ball was HUGE. It apparently was quite happy being a 'water plant', maybe too happy. I had to dig this gigantic hole to plant it because most of it was roots. It is now doing well and I can't wait for it to grow larger because I like to attach orchids to it. Of course now that it is in the ground it is growing much slower. Go figure... I think your new plant will be fine.

I have some Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) seedlings of the same size I can trade you.

OK, I'm game to start... Your soil test results show that there has been way too much unnecessary fertilising going on in your gardens. You say "Mom used to spend a lot of money on miracle grow garden soil and some kind of rose fertilizer. She would just give that to (every) thing growing in the yard." And " I figured the bottle brush was needing some too, so i poured about 2 or 3 pounds of epsom salt around the tree and waited." There's really no reason for you to throw around fertilisers willy-nilly, without knowing the reason for it. For your bottle-brush (Callistemon) specifically, they hate pretty much ANY fertiliser, but especially phosphorous, which will kill them dead. And your soil test indicates very high levels of phosphorous. Personally, I'd cut that plant down to about 6" high and see if it re-sprouts. They survive this treatment very well and grow back big and fast. (Unless it's already past the point of saving.) In the meantime, I'd stop using any bought chemical fertilisers and continue with what you're doing now, just adding leaf mulch, compost and maybe a light dusting of blood/bone meal. Then, in a year or so, get another soil test done for comparison with this one.