A rootball with hardened clay soil often means that the rootball's watering needs have been neglected. The best way to remove the dry hardened clay soil from a rootball is to first water the potted Thuja often enough for the clay in the pot to become softened. As soon as the clay softens simply remove the Thuja Green Giant from it's pot and wash away the clay from the root ball with a garden hose. If the clay soil in the root ball has not been completely softened, than only the outer edges of the rootball's soil which was softened will wash away. To proceed at that point, one would need to put the tree back in the pot and fill the sides, where part of the clay had been removed, with a good quality potting soil, so the exposed roots do not get too dry. Then resume watering the tree again in a manner and for the purpose of softening the rest of the clay. Once again remove the tree from the pot and use the garden hose to wash away the rest of the clay from the root ball. After accomplishing that, immediately soak the tree's bare roots for about 10 minutes or so in a good quality microbial plant food starter, which among other things stimulates good root growth and helps prevent transplant shock. Then immediately plant the tree in your hopefully better than clay garden soil. Please do not misunderstand my intent for giving the above explaination. Only those who do not already have clay soil should follow the above instructions. For those of you who have native clay soil, please be assured that Thuja Green Giant trees should grow nicely in your soil without removing the original clay rootball. It will be important for you to replace the proper moisture level for the trees's rootball, but it will also be important for you to make sure the slow draining clay soil where you plant the tree is not allowed to stay so saturated that the tree's roots decay. Those hand help soil moisture testers are good to use while trying to get these trees established. I have found that to be especially true in clay soils which drain very slowly. My soil tester has a range of 1-4. The Thuja's seem to suffer drastically if their root ball's moisture level stays at the 4 mark very long. I have found that they do best with the moisture maintained at the 2-3 levels on my soil moisture meter. My slowest growing Thuja green giant is plant in an area where the builder did not clean up his pile of sand. They simply leveled the area so that grass grows fine there, but the Thuja has grown only a few inches in the last year. I problably need to introduce some Black Cow compost into that sandy soil planting bed this fall. The only reason I have not done that before is my fear that the neighbor's invasive bermuda grass might take over the area. Hopefully, a root barrior installation will not be needed to prevent that from happening when I do mix in the compost.

Thank you for the ideas! The damage is a little higher than my corgi or the previous owner's dachshunds could reach. It's possible that a neighborhood dog did it, but the area is a little inaccessible (it's not visible in the second pic. I included that one just to show the tree species). I will cut off the blackened branch and keep my eye on the brown. I'm now noticing some other smaller brown areas on some of the other green giants. Is that just normal for this tree? It's still warm here in sc.

The nursery has two different dwarf Italian Cypress, The "totem" I looked at before that has the 2 ft spread and 12 to 15ft height and they say is fast growing. The have another dwarf Italian cypress that gas a 3ft spread is "slow" growing and is rated to grow to 20 feet. They say the totem gains height faster because it doesn't put as much energy into creating a robust trunk as the non-totem dwarf. He had the non-totem dwarf as a neater look because branches don't droop the way the totems do and it will hold up to wind better than a totem version. The downside of the non-totem dwarf if that it has a foot wider spread (if that's a problem), it has a slower growth rate and the ultimate height will be roughly 5ft taller. They said the totem grows faster and yet has a lower expected maximum height because it has a shorter lifespan. It doesn't just keep growing to 30+ feet because it's likely to have completed it's lifespan by the time it gets much past 15 feet. Dwarf Italian Cypress. Slow growing, 3ft spread, 20ft expected max height. Dwarf Italian Cypress "Totem." Fast growing, 2ft spread 12-15ft expected max height.

Italian cypress trees are best suited to dry, warm climates, so they could struggle in soggy heat common to the Houston area, not to mention the gumbo clay typically found in the region. They're also susceptible to certain diseases and pests, and there was serious damage reported after the severe winter of 2020-21. My experience with Thuja "Green Giant" is confined to the Midwest/Upper South so I can't speak to how they do on the Texas Gulf Coast. As far as spacing goes, if they're being planted for a privacy screen/tall hedge they can be spaced 5-10 feet apart; for an extra-thick screen you can plant them in staggered rows 5 feet apart or so. Eight feet of space between a pool and the property line should be no trouble. Hedging plants can eventually be trimmed if needed. Specimen trees (Green Giants look great in this role) should be given more space, but most people use them for screening so tighter planting works well. We had a couple of staggered rows of Green Giants at a previous home that grew well and looked beautiful as a screen. When we sold the place, the new owners cut down all but one of the trees (apparently they didn't like the privacy). That one tree had been partially compressed against a neighbor, and while it looked fine as part of the screen it did NOT make a good appearance as a solo tree.