Replace..what a brat..the landscaper should be happy that he's not dealing with ME..

Thanks for the response. I guess I am worried about re-establishing the roots. They didn't grow much the first year and this past year have grown 2-3 feet.

No idea. I think the neighbor went with the discount special landscaper. He has only been working Saturdays and Sundays building a patio for the past 7 weeks. It's been annoying enough having a construction yard for the past two months. Now this.

That is outrageous. I would request compensation from the neighbour who should in turn get it from the landscaper.

As a matter of procedure I'd try to have the landscaper buy matching sized fully warrantied ones from a reputable nursery which will plant them.

Definitely replace - those will never grow back to match the others. See if the neighbor will pay the cost for you to have delivered from a local nursery replacement trees of same size. If you/family/friend are physically able to dig the old ones out and plant the new ones, I'd do that - why rely on a landscaper who doesn't care about making you happy, and maybe isn't very experienced in such things.

replace ... and dont worry about stock being a foot or two shorter ... in a decade you wont notice any difference [or you will forget..lol] .. there is no real uniformity in nature ....

it may have been cool if back at planting.. you had planted a diversity of heights.. just for the heck of it ...

since you planted the others.. i would be happy if the guy bought me the plants.. and i would plant them ...

too bad about his idiot kid.. but at least he fessed up and took responsibility ...

ken

How did the kid damage your tree? It looks terrible; I am so sorry!

That guy isn't going to be in business much longer, if his kid displays this kind of behavior on a regular basis. Leave a Yelp review on him when this is all said and done.

When you replace, can you transplant two trees from the ends of the hedge into the "hole" and put the two newest/smaller/replacement trees on the ends of the hedge? Not a professional here obviously, just thinking about the situation and posing a question.

To me it seem that having one tree with transplant shock would be better that two. So to move trees around for cosmetic reasons does not seem like a good idea.

Moving the trees around to get the correct height profile, also does not always work, as trees have their own idea of how they should look. Just because they are the tallest at one point in their lives does not mean they will be the tallest five years from now.

I planted two trees of the same type and height six years ago about 25 feet apart. Today one is nearly twice the size of the other.