One of the most important rules of planting trees is to backfill ONLY with the dirt that you removed.

Our top soil is just dirt that we scraped away when we did our final grade. So it’s mostly clay but the soil was little more
Broken up instead of putting the huge chunks of clay back that we dug up from the lower 3rd Of the holes we dug. And also we had great soil for the first foot down and then rest of the way was full of clay so we only mixed in a very small amount of the other soil from our yard

Your GG are fine. Mine are 5 years old and do that when the weather is cold. Mine presently look like that. As the weather warms up they will green up. The first year planted just make sure they have adequate water. I'm in PA and we have been having unseasonal cold weather the past few weeks.

I’m not sure if you get as much rain as we do, but In early March, I had a landscaper install eleven 7-8 ft gg, and the builder’s soil was clay, rock, gravel, and some kind of gray gritty stuff. I also had mushroom soil compost mixed with the “ top soil” so that the grass seed would have a chance to grow, but I have no idea if they added the compost to the gg holes. Anyway, the landscaper told me not to water the green giants because we were getting a lot of spring rain at the time. In the summer I’m supposed to water if we have a week without a “good rain” — whatever that means.

So I haven’t watered mine even once since they went into the ground. They arrived in burlap instead of pots if that makes a difference. The gg had a lot of yellow like yours when planted, but they look pretty good today. A neighbor told me that they would get really green with something called Milorganite. I found a bag at the Agway store, but haven’t applied it yet.

Thank you everyone. Our soil is very wet at the moment.

Suzanne thank you. I have not watered them since
Bit we
Are
Now getting extreme
Amounts of rain here in Michigan and they are turning all
Bronze. They have been planted for 2 weeks. I’m so nervous for these trees.

Check the area immediately surrounding the rootball. It could well be that the planting hole is just draining very slowly and the growers' soil surrounding the roots is too water retentive. That combination can result in the same sort of "bathtub effect" as can amending a clay based planting hole.

2 weeks in the ground is not too late to dig and raise them. It is always a good idea to plant high when dealing with clay.

We did plant high. Ans al the water washed away
Some of the dirt that was covering the top of the roots

Here are the trees now from the pictures which I took at 1 week

Here are aide by side pics

Also, I had mulch around then and I pulled the mulch to sit the outer 6 inches of the planted hole to allow the trees to try out. And then it poured rain for 3 days.

Interesting discussion about a shrub seems like everyone likes. (we are in southeast PA)

We purchased from a local nursery and had them install 26 6-7 footers in early April, they augered small holes in an area on a berm with good drainage and mulched them a bit - 6 feet apart and 6 feet from a fence.

We are watering 2x week when no rain....slow hose for 5 or 10 minutes...used some holly tone also.

We already have 1 to 2 feet of new growth believe it or not.....but is mostly leaders that are outpacing the rest of the plant

should i trim back the leaders? getting diff answers on the internet and from nurseries...anyone have any opinions? maybe its best to see if they fill in and wait 6 months?

You only want to trim back the leaders if you wish to keep them to a specific height. Removing them or cutting them back will not make the sides fill in - that is a factor of time and maturity.

btw, these are not shrubs in any sense of the word!! These are fast growing BIG trees!

ok thanks.....surprising how many people say to trim ....but its 50/50 and i have checked around...i would rather not trim and let these get as high as they can go (i had a row of 30 foot white pines there that were messy and a couple were leaning so i pulled 8 big ones out and replaced with the GGs

Hi Rachel. How are your Green Giant Arbs doing now? I planted five of them three weeks ago and mine went from bright green to what yours looked like in the pictures. I'm also in Michigan, Coleman to be exact, and we've experienced extreme fluctuations in temperatures. I'm hoping that the trees are just adjusting.

Jacob! Our trees survived and look pretty good this year. There is new growth and they are also looking a little discolored from all of the temperature changes! Ours survived and I am Hoping they thicken up a little this year. They were very thinned out when we bought them. They weren’t grown in a green house so they didn’t look as full and pretty as they do at the store. The yellow color comes and goes. It’s quite weird. But I am not an arborist. Lol. My husband tells me to just let them grow and not stare at them every day which is what I have done. Lol. I think he’s annoyed of me at this point.

Jacob I think they go through transfer shock too so they won’t look like they did when you got them. I’m pretty sure that’s what was going on with ours last year.

"They weren’t grown in a green house so they didn’t look as full and pretty as they do at the store."

Just an FYI but hardy trees and shrubs are rarely ever grown in a greenhouse The vast majority or field grown or in containers but exposed to outdoor climates and weather. How full and "pretty" they look depends on the skill and experience of the grower, not whether it was grown inside or out.

Oh that’s good to know. Well these people planted of bunch is these trees in a pot And then left them clumped together to grow for 2 years not doing much to them so I am hoping they will thicken up over time

Gardengal48

Are you familiar with these trees? Any ideas on how I can help then to grow thicker?

Provide plenty of water and just let them develop on their own. Time will fill them in :-)

I’m so glad to see that they survived! Mine were so green when I bought them that I assume they were growing someplace much warmer before I discovered them at Lowe’s. I’ll probably fertilize them with little milorganite this weekend. Thank you!