That makes sense I'll take a look in there and will prune away. I previously had a 12 foot maple tree in it's place and I was able to water it fine. Basically since its on a hill I know there is a lot of runoff so I'll need to water more often.

first.. why isnt the maple there anymore ...

and if it were mine ... i would put the hose on trickle ... until i wetted the entire root mass planted... and then not water again.. until a hand trowel at 3 to 6 inches indicated .. that the soil was drying ... and that could be weeks or months ...

it really has nothing to do with moisture at the surface.. its all about keeping that root ball that was planted.. MOIST ... until the large transplant can fend for itself in 2 or 3 years ... especially in drouht

if the trickle runs off ... the trickle is too fast ... ken

BTW ... as to your title.. no evergreen plant.. of any kind... holds its needles forever ... some are shed every year ... and after transplant.. that can be increased ...

but they will be the oldest.. more interior needles ... and on some level.. you should expect that in the next year or 3 ...

but as per above.. that isnt what is happening here ...

ken

I relocated the maple to the front yard as I wanted year round privacy with the Norway in the back. Thanks Ken for the watering tips!

The tree is fine. Give it 3-4 years, keep it watered and it will be "good as new".

oh...and of course cut out the dead branches.

Yup-insignificant. What I'd like to comment on though is the dumb-in my opinion anyway-way in which this Norway spruce and right around ten million others just like it have been sheared to what.......make it look more like a spruce tree? Such nonsense continues in the nursery industry. Arguably, the coolest thing about Norway spruce is the branch arrangement, with the big upswept branches and the pendant branchlets hanging down. Awesome structural quality, utterly ruined by this dumb treatment.

Nothing on you though svt, and the good news is it will grow out of that fairly rapidly.

Good info wisconsitom. I honestly never knew that. I prefer trees to grow out to their natural form too. Less work for me. :)

And no worries. with such a vigorous grower as is the Norway spruce, this changeover to natural growth morphology will be quite rapid. That is to say, the ungainly stage, as you have a plant somewhere midway between sheared and au naturel' will be brief!