I planted an 'Acrocona' this fall in full all day sun (I have 0 shade at the house) and have it mulched a couple inches thick in a very large ring. Abciximab helped me with the selection (bnb) and I had the opportunity to see one growing along with 'Pusch' in his garden. They were doing very well but his gardens have primo soil and aftercare to put it mildly. Mine will be in full sun on an elevated location. I am heavily considering shade cloth for the first two seasons.I really enjoyed my tour and my eyes were opened as to what can grow in our region. I am trying my best to deter the conifer bug because I fear I will have massive casualties. But darn it, he has SO MANY doing so well it is hard keep the wallet closed! John ps - I know this is an old topic, but I will update with pics of mine as this growing season commences and progresses if anyone is interested

While this thread was pointlessly bumped, I wanted to thank Dean for sharing that study. I have 2 A. pindrow and they've been just fine here. Also showing enough root rot resistance _for northeastern Maryland_ (elsewhere, YMMV) A. recurvata A. alba (there's a huge one at Longwood Gardens, and a big one at National Arboretum) A. nordmanniana Failures: any western US fir on its own roots - I've tried several of them; although my house came with a Concolor fir that was 40-50' tall, it was in slow decline the whole time and died after one of the mega-wet spells we had in the early 2010s. If you had to chose one as slightly tolerant for the eastern US, it would be that one. And they are common landscaping material up north like the NYC and Boston suburbs. Abies delavayi on its own roots Btw to 'Cliff' ungrafted Noble Fir, Abies procera, is 100% no go for anywhere in the southern US other than the highest mountain towns like Boone, NC. Will probably die the first year of root rot, as did mine.

Hi Kevin, The variety of causes for what ails any plant is often vast ranging from drought, fertilizer burn, freeze/ thaw damage, insects, injury, fungus and disease. What often drives gardeners is immediate need and risk of inaction. For other perspectives try contacting your county extension office and sending in these pix. Also try one of several online sources such as Yardener.com, AskMelinda and Gardening Know How Q& A. You may not get to an exact answer as to what has caused this puzzling problem but it may help you decide if you have to take action or can watch and wait. These trees grow very slowly, only about 9-12" per year. I agree that fall planting is ideal though I didn't always understand just how much better things fare when doing that. Summer planting is super stressful. When I planted mine in June I lost 2 within a month. They were throttled by storms. I just went and bought new ones that I planted in fall. They did better, not having to cope with transplant shock, storms, drought stress and the rest. So don't worry at all, if you find that you can't correct the problem then either let them hang around and see how they do for one year and replace them next fall or go ahead and do it this fall. Considering their slow growth the replaced ones won't be far behind the established ones.

I like the blueberries. I think I'll put them on the other property line. Doesn't entirely solve my current issue, but it still helps. They're typically 3-4 feet, and tolerate a higher Ph than other blueberries. I would still like to do a raised bed for them. I could have 4-6 feet with a raised bed. I rarely drink tea, to be honest. I think you may be correct about the Viburnums. Some seem like they are tasty, but from my little bit of digging, most of those don't appear to be evergreen, however, they do work in my zone. There is V. Pragense, but I am unable to find a definitive answer if they are human edible. Some said it was, most said it was not. And even the ones that said it was edible said it was not...that tasty. Some people claimed that not even birds or deer would eat some of the Viburnum berries. It seems the further away you get from "normal" plants, the harder it is to find solid answers. I like Unedo. I think I will make a place somewhere, probably near the hedge, but not a row of them, if that makes sense. I have looked at Elaeagnus Ebbingei quite a bit. It has it's own set of issues, though. It's invasive in some states. Although, I did not see it as being invasive in mine. Additionally, it doesn't appear to fruit reliably. There is also a fairly large seed inside of it. Fortunately, it's supposed to edible as well, from my understanding. I wonder if I could plant something like Ebbingei since it will still fruit and is evergreen, and then maybe plant something like huckleberry (vaccinium ovatum, similar to a blueberry?) supposed to evergreen, but quite small, or maybe sea buckthorn (not evergreen) in front of it. Sea and Huckle are supposed to be smaller than Ebbingei, so it would not shade, and both could get sun. I'm not sure if that would work or not.