Last fall, we had 20 or so 5' arborvitae planted by our gardening guy. They
browned up some during the winter, but pretty much came back over the
summer. Now they are all browning out from the center. It looks pretty
widespread and there is a lot of browning going on. Are we going to lose
them? I hope not - it was a lot of $$$ to plant them in the first place. The
gardening guy says we need to water them - which we are doing, but it looks
pretty bad. Any advice or anything? We live on Long Island, NY.


The fact that you live on Long Island makes me nervous, because I too live here
and I see how some of the so-called "gardening guys" treat plants.

The crews here are big on weed-killer -- did they apply any near the young
arbors? Also, they are big on "working" the soil at the base of trees and
shrubs -- constantly digging and piling up soil at the base of stems because it
may look asthetically pleasing, but it basically tortures the young roots and
doesn't let them catch on.
I've also seen rows of browning arborvitaes along dry, windswept curbs and
high mounds, without any sort of mulch or adding of organic matter to the poor
dry soil. In what conditions are your arbors planted?

~flick