"Earths_Child" wrote in message
...
I'm out in the garden most nights, and get to prune, and dig and water
and
feed, so I can't think what is happening. I've read the earlier
posts
about dying conifers, but would like to know what I might be doing
wrong.

Had some conifers (spreading leylandii) put in early spring to get a
garden
boundary going. Most of them did pretty well; though one of them
dried out
by mid march and I uprooted it and put it in the shredder, replacing
it with
another from the garden centre (a slightly different variety, but
thriving
none-the-less). Recently however, another of my conifers suddenly
went
brown and the needles started dropping.

I cut it back, fed the plant, and sprayed it in case mites had got to
it,
but it went downhill rapidly and within two weeks, I had to dig it up.
I've trimmed it and replanted it behing one of my healthier greener
leylandiis, in case something magical happens, and this time, I
replaced the
gap with four newer conifers.

And then suddenly only two days ago, another of the conifers planted
in
spring has taken a nosedive. If the other two are anything to go by,
I
don't hold out much hope, although I intervended on Tuesday night when
I
noticed the first discolouration and the slight droop.

Why is this happening? Is there anything that I can do to prevent
healthy
looking green conifers from drying out and dying within what appears
to be
days?

I am wondering if you are watering them effectively. Some people water
from a hosepipe or a watering can rose believing that they have watered
successfully but, more often than not, they will find that the water
runs off the rootball leaving the roots dry.

A dry rootball is hard to penetrate. Water deflects off it. It needs
to be soaked slowly before planting and then by the application of water
poured directly and slowly onto the roots.

Regards,
Emrys Davies.