it is a little early to be giving up .... sometimes i will leave dead leaders on for 2 or 3 years.. they come in handy for tying new leaders onto .... unless it is in some prime location .... and just has to go ... any chance at a picture??? not much info to go on ... and i will presume you know our basic thoughts on the size of transplants... if there is any way to get up there... see what the buds look like... firm usually means they might pop ... mushy means dead ... while you are up there.. tie up a new leader .... you can always release it later if the other recovers ... this way .. new fresh growth is upright .. rather than lateral .... and .... i have had young foo foo pines.. lose all their needles... and bud out just fine ... so give it a little time ... at least until the other trees and conifers in z6 .. start pushing new growth ... and that is probably not for another 4 to 6 weeks.. at least ... ken

Dave--(or anyone else?): I am really confused by these "weeping" Norway spruce cultivars. You show one picture of a 'Reflexa' that was not staked but is growing erect, then another picture of the same kind of tree that had to be staked. So, does this tree grow erect sometimes, and not all the time? As for the P. abies 'Frohburg' I find confusing statements. You say it needs to be staked or it will grow prostrate. Iseli nursery, and a couple of other places on-line, says it is an upright grower. Elsewhere I see a cultivar name P. abies 'Frohburg Prostrata,' with the 'Prostrata' sugggesting a flopping tree. So what am I supposed to think? Now in the Gotelli collection at the National Arboretum in DC they have two P. abies 'Inversa' trees. Both of these have picturesque irregular habits, but they are definately not prostrate. One, or I think both, have multiple erect trunks growing upright with severely pendulous side branches. I would like to grow one of these, but several sources say they will not grow upright. I have also seen another P. abies 'Inversa,' or so it is labelled, in the courtyard of the Winterthur museum in Delaware. This tree is also growing upright without any staking. And there is another similar tree growing prominently in the National Memorial Park in Fairfax, VA, but this tree has no label at all. I don't know if you have seen my postings in the trees forum under the topic "Large Willow" where I comment on the rampant confusion about golden weeping willows, but I may be even more confused and frustrated in trying to get information about the growth habit of these so-called weeping varieties of NS. I want to grow one or more, but what do I buy? And from whom? Are those I saw labelled 'Inversa' actually something that I can buy as 'Inversa," or is that an incorrect name? And this 'Frohburg' thing? Is there a 'Frohburg' that grows erect, and then another that is 'Frohburg Prostrata' that must always be staked--or which is more properly meant to grow along the ground. Of course, I assume that any of these that are potentially erect growers probably must be staked for a time, but from what I have seen with my own eyes (at the Nat Arb, and at Winterthur, and at the Nat Mem Park), at least one, and maybe more than one of these cultivars, can grow on their own after a period of time being staked, in at least some irregular erect fashion. So, is 'Inversa' one of these? Or 'Frohburg' or what? I have seen them, want one, but what one, or ones is/are it/they?? H E L P!! this is driving me nuts!! --Spruce

Thanks for the feedback. I had a local landscaper move the tree. He had 4 guys and a bobcat and just dug it up. He was only willing to take on the job if I had him do some other projects…..said it wasn't worth it to him to invest all that labor and not sell me anything. He also said there was no guarantee or warranty on the tree….that he didn't know if it would survive or not. That was about a year and a half ago, it seems to be doing pretty well. There's one side that's fairly thin, but I think its due to lack of direct sunlight to that spot. They had me water it heavily the day before. We have a very dense clay here in central IN, so it's tough going. The root system they dug up was much wider and not as deep as I would have thought. Looked like a big pancake. Perhaps that dense clay was a blessing in that the whole thing held together nicely. It was only moved about 30-50 feet, so it wasn't far to go. I'll post more pictures once it gets some new growth this spring. As for getting up there….It's fairly close to my deck, so if I had to I'm thinking standing on the deck railing with a long pole saw might get me there. Or ladder on the deck. It would be an adventure in any case.

A lot of relevant points have been made as well as suggestions for replacements. I agree with all of this. Because of the width of the bed and assuming you want something tall (30' or more) you could use Thuja occidentalis 'Hetz Wintergreen' aka 'Wintergreen'. I've personally measured the width of 35' specimens and they were 6-8' wide; most being 6' wide; 25-year specimens. A screen of Thuja occidentalis 'Degroot's Spire' would require very close spacing. You could do it, but you would need a lot of plants and... growth-rate would be much slower than 'Hetz Wintergreen'. 'Taylor' juniper is a wonderful plant but it is a juniper and will be prone to losing its' foliage where sunlight cannot penetrate its' foliage, i.e. toward the fence. I have some 13' 'Taylor' junipers in unobstructed full-sun. Also, junipers are not pleasant to the touch while Thuja/Arborvitae, are.. I don't know if I've helped much, but, 'Hetz Wintergreen' is an ideal plant in that location that you could space 4' apart and they'd look good for life. Dax