I wonder if it received sufficient moisture. Big maples of any variety can be major water hogs with anything very close to their root system.

Thanks for both these responses. I should be more clear. I have dealt with maples quite a bit over the years and am aware of their issues. In my opinion, this is not a lack of moisture from the maple. First, its a sugar and not a Norway, a Silver, or a hybrid of them. Second, its only 15 years old, and this location along the garage is in its shade due to sun angles, but generally NOT that close to the tree itself (~ 25 feet). Finally, this cypress is a bit of a raised bed I created with some soil excavated for a small patio (yes I amended the soil with leaf litter, compost, etc), so soil moisture really isnt a problem. In fact, I think it might be the opposite.

We moved to a different house and planted this from the pot in a fairly shady location along the garage in the shade of a sugar maple.

-->>> did you take the plant with you ... or buy new.. when.. when was it planted .. how do we rule out poor stock.. or poor planting/ did you bare root .. etc ... what i mean is transplant stresses ...

where are you.. how bad was winter.. how bad was last summer ... etc ... was the plant in god shape.. if you did dig it up ...

ken

This was new bought at a really reputable small nursery nearby. Did not take any of the hundreds of plants with us when we moved. The move was tough enough as it was. :)

Summer and winter of the last year were really pretty average in temp, etc, but WET (we are in southern Wisconsin (zone 5).

At our old place I had russian cypresses in a variety of conditions for years and never had a single problem with any of them, so this is just strange.

Many years ago, when I first joined this forum, I inquired about growing conditions for this plant. A person who went by Resin (or Pineresin) told me to think "scree" when siting it. I of course had no idea what that meant, so I had to look it up.

The bottom line is it needs good drainage. While not difficult to grow on sites with good drainage and sun, it will not perform as well when these conditions are not met. It used to be promoted as shade tolerant, but I don't think that's the case anymore. Like a lot of conifers, it might survive in shade, but it will be thin and scraggly.

Thanks again for the comments and clarifying questions.

Maackia I suspect that drainage might be an issue in this location. I like your description of "scree" which to me implies a rocky hillside with some gravel in the soil.

I am going to pull this one up and look at the roots. I may need to find a new home for it to see if it can recovery at all. Also I will need to do some more to improve soil drainage.

Thanks everyone. I will be posting a similar thread for a golden falsecypress that is also struggling in a different and sunnier location.

Mulch and litter around plant look like there may have been surface water moving them around. Amending of small areas of backfill not desirable for long term subjects with anything more than tiny root systems (throughout the life of the specimen) because of possible adverse affects on movement of water into and out of the amended portion.

also looks kinda planted too deep

ron