Hello everyone

This is my first post here. Hopefully I'm uploading my pictures properly.

I am fairly new to gardening, I've been at it for maybe 6 years. About a year ago I finished installation on a Koi pond. Immediately naturalizing with plants became a priority and I really wanted evergreens, which opened me up to the world of dwarf conifers and I'm hooked. I'm now planting them all over my property. Obviously there is a learning curve with conifers and I made the mistake of amending the soil as I put most of my plants in the ground, but so far most of my plants are doing fine. I live in central Virginia zone 7a.

My first dwarf conifer was a Picea Abies "Birds Nest" that I have had for about 4 years now. I love it and Spruces and Hinokis are my favorites. I Now have few more

small spruces and I have some concerns about 3 of them.

I have a Picea Orientalis "Spring Frost" that has a little browning. I'm thinking it looks like sun burn. It's only on the top sides of the new growth that pushed out this spring after planting. Overall the plant isn't looking too bad, but I want to remedy the situation, if I can, before it gets worse. This little guy was planted in March and is getting a solid 8 hours of sun, or more, including during the hottest part of the day. I've made sure to keep it properly watered and mulched. I have good

drainage. Everything I'm reading on it says full sun. Should I move it somewhere with a bit more shade?or could this browning be something else.

I also have two Picea Pungens one "Blue Falls", which I believe is also called "The Blues" and one "Bakeri". Both of these plants were pretty good size at about 4' tall when I purchased them. Both were ball and burlap in pots and I took a chance buying them on clearance at a box store last year. They had been in fall sun in the pots all spring and most of the summer. I knew it was a risk, but I paid $18 for "The Blues" and $37 for the "Bakeri" so I figured it was worth a shot. I Planted them when I got them in late summer and watered them and mulched them well. I figured the ground was better than the pots even if it wasn't an ideal planting time. I really like both plants and was excited to see them both put out new growth this spring. Both are in full sun. My concern is they put out new growth vigorously in some places and in others they put out nothing. What does that mean? Will those limbs die? Will the plants recover? aesthetically the uneven growth doesn't effect the already irregularly growing "The Blues" the "Bakeri" however is taking on a cylindrical rather than conical shape.

Any opinions? Thanks for the help.