They should be as hardy....listed to zone 5. However, these are going to be somewhat less tolerant of dryness than either the standard American arborvitae or the hybrid Green Giants. The parent species, Thuja plicata (aka giant arborvitae or western red cedar), is native to my area and grows in consistently moist sites. It is the primary conifer found in the Olympic Rainforest and the largest known specimen (1000+ year old, 174' tall and with 17,650 cubic feet of wood volume) was located here until a series of storms ended its life in 2016. At over 140 inches of rainfall a year, it is the wettest place in the lower 48!

While you certainly don't need that much rainfall, any extended dryness of the site until well established and especially in winter with wind desiccation, could lead to an early fatality. Just not sure that a drip line is up to the job..........

"keeping them watered on their drip line"

Did you ever dig down to make sure the water was penetrating to the depth necessary?

That looks like every other Thuja failure due to lack of deep watering during establishment.

Yes, when I first planted them and installed the drip setup (April 2020), I verified that it was indeed providing a deep soaking. They are on 2 gal per hour emitters and I run a timer for 90 minutes for a deep soak. Perhaps they needed 4 GPH emitters like I have on my larger Green Giants?

I'll post a picture of the rest of the Can Can row.

The 4 trees to the left of the Yew are greening up and appear to have survived winter with no problem.

The 2 trees closest to the camera appear to be suffering the same fate as the 6 crispy ones on the other side of the Yew.

This planting area receives a lot of sun and unfortunately the ground is frozen for a few months. Recommendations on how can I provide them water to combat the winter sun and harsh winds? My Green Giants in the backyard seem to be more robust in this regard.

Recommendations on what I should plant here to replace these dead trees?

Thanks for the replies.

I don't deal with frozen soil so not sure how helpful my comments are. But I would wonder if a) your soil was adequately moisture retentive for these trees; b) that they received a full, deep, non-drip soaking right before ground freeze happened and c) they were mulched heavily to retain any soil moisture and to protect against extreme temperature swings.

It is my understanding that wind desiccation is successfully offset by maintaining adequate soil moisture. Evergreens never go fully dormant like deciduous trees and shrubs do and their roots continue to draw up and pump water to the foliage to keep it properly hydrated through winter.

YOU DONT NEED TO BUY DIFFERENT EMITTERS.. JUST LEARN HOW TO USE THE ONES YOU HAVE ...oops..

but im wondering more about winter sun reflected off the gorgeous brickwork ... sucking moisture out of a dormant plant.. whose roots cant pump water to replace such lost in winter ... not to forget about winter winds doing the same thing ... MI prevalent winter winds are from the NW ... where is that in regard to the windbreak fence???

thats a rare MI driveway ... with ground heave an all ... where are you.. big city name ...

i see the shadow of the large tree.. but where does the sun travel during the rest of the day... is it ever shining across the brick work ...??

ken

btw... if you are in MI ... give them until mid to late may.. to see what if any growth triggers ...

and then decide if you want to wait and see if they can recover.. or whether they will piss you off every time you drive up the driveway ... if so... just be done with them ...

ken

I'm in Oxford, with sandy soil. I think that has prevented frost heave of the brick pavers.

The sun is always shining from the fence side on the Can Cans (from the south), never from the brick side. I was kind of thinking the soil remained too wet, with the snow melt and all the rain since the ground thawed. Can root rot happen this early in the season?

Here is a close up of another one that is dying...from the top down.

It's a bummer to lose over a grand in trees, they will make great campfire starters.....but that was not my original plan for them! Suggestions on what to replace them with? Obviously the Yew (not sure which specific type it is) survives, but I'm looking for something that will grow quicker. My 50+ green giants in the backyard seem to be fine, but would outgrow the area along my driveway without a lot of pruning.

Unless in standing water for a period of days or you have rubbish drainage, I can't imagine soil being too wet for any Thuja plicata!

And my experience with conifers and root rots is that they do not present as yours are doing. I'd still lean heavily to them being dried out at some point in time over winter and I'd be inclined to leave them alone for a few months (watering as necessary) to see what they do.

Just to follow up.....most of these Thujas have died. I have 3 that are still clinging to life, but their future does not look promising. I dug one of them up and immediately noticed a lack of a root ball. There were a few small roots below the surface and one long, deep reaching root.

I took that tree and a soil sample to MSU's Plant Pathology Lab for study. They found no issues with the soil, no signs of disease or insect damage on the tree. They advised the decline was caused by transplant shock, lack of substantial root mass, and winter injury. It was noted they have received an increased number of damaged evergreen samples due to this past winter (strong winds, drastic temp swings).

Bottom line....Thuja Can Can, two really expensive thumbs down!

I'm thinking about replacing them with a Chinese Juniper variant.