Hi Suzy,
I am just north of Chicago. I did not explain that there are two arborvitae
on either
side of the entrance to my house. The trees are staggered in age by about one
season. They are both watered equally, yet one looks healthy, and the other one
died. Either side of the entrance has caused problems, although it is usually
the more
mature tree (two seasons in the ground) that fails. This time, the pattern was
broken
because the younger of the two trees developed problems.
I did fertilize both trees with Miracle Grow, but can that have the effect
of killing
off one of them? These were all five foot trees when planted, so we are not
talking
about young seedlings.
These trees being on the West side of the house, get only a half day of full
sun, but
I don't think that should harm the arborvitae.

Still puzzled,

Sherwin D.

S Orth wrote:

First, it depends on where you live, e.g., if the ground freezes in winter
or not. If evergreens go into winter and haven't been adequately watered,
the bitter winter winds will dry out the "needles", which you won't notice
till things thaw in spring and you have a bunch of rusty red foliage.

A couple of other things -- most plants need 1" of rain or supplemental
water per week. Newly planted trees and shrubs shouldn't be fertilized
until they had enough time to establish enough of a root system to support
the above ground part of the plant. A general rule of thumb is to hold off
on fertilizer one year for every inch of trunk diameter.

Hope this helps!
Suzy in Zone 5 Wisconsin

"sherwindu" wrote in message
...
I am now on my fourth replacement for two Arborvitae (Emerald Green),
and the
general pattern is that they grow for about one season and then start to
die. These
trees are on the West side of the house, but get at least a full half
day of sun. They
were planted correctly and well maintained with adequate water and
Miracle Grow
for evergreens. I'm beginning to suspect the nursery, although they
claim that over
the years, they have used several sources for trees. They usually come
bailed, and
we remove the wrapping for planting. There were formerly Red Cedars
growing in
these locations, one on either side of the house entrance, and they were
mature trees
when we moved in 20 years ago. We took out the Red Cedars about four
years ago
when they gave us problems with Apple Cedar Rust on our apple trees, but
the cedars
were always healthy looking, aside from the rust. It's a real puzzle
why these trees
keep dying. Since taking out the cedars, there are no signs of the
Apple Cedar Rust.

Sherwin D.