how did you transport them from seller to your yard???

could any of it be wind damage in transport ...

water when they need water ... almost nothing needs water every day.. in the spring ...

btw.. where are you .... big city name??

i dont see wilting .. maybe see some dage from hoiking them around town.. from grower.. to seller.. to you ...

what is your native soil ... does it perk.. or drain properly???

see link for proper watering.. review the whole thing.. lets talk about anything you might have done differently ...

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

imo.. they are SLIGHTLY STRESSED ... from the whole process from grower to you ... they are not hungry.. fert is not an option right now ...

proper deep watering.. with near drying in between is all you need .. or they need ...

dig holes if you need to find out about moisture at depth ... hand trowel.. or tablespoon 3 to 6 inches deep in gob planted and in surrounding soil ... report what you find ...

ken

I think the discolored ones are on their way to brown and dead. 'Smaragd' is more susceptible to root rot than usual for Thuja occidentalis. So if the watering has been succeeding in keeping the soil the trees came in constantly wet that might be the problem.

Daily watering at this time of year is usually excessive....unless you live where it is already hot and quite arid. As noted above too much water/too wet a soil can be a fatal issue with these.

Thanks Ken. I am in the Montreal area up in Canada. Some of the leaves are so dry and discolored, they almost feel like paper. BTW these instructions came with the trees...

Don't:

Automatically water daily, regardless of weather conditions

Loosen soil at bottom of hole

Mix other material (planting mix, in this case) with backfill

Use bone meal

Use any phosphorus containing fertilizer at planting time, let alone one containing 30% phosphorus

The Myth of Indisputable Information “Nursery brochures are always the best sources of appropriate planting practices”

https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/planting-instructions.pdf

We have not had any rain for about 10 days so I felt like they needed watered + Following whatever instructions I was given on the brochure...let's say it had been rainy I would not have watered them daily...Could fertilizer have damaged the trees? Also I remember that some of the trees had a very dry root ball...it was almost like concrete. I planted about 8-10 smaller cedars last year and had 0 issues Thanks everybody.

Then they weren't kept moist before you bought them and have not re-moistened since. And that is why they are dying - a body needs to poke around in the root balls of field grown stock to visually check the effects of their own watering rather than assuming the desired moisture level has been achieved and is being maintained.

Also visually dried out stock is best left at - or taken back to - the retailer instead of being planted and then bothered with. Because once field soil root balls dry out they often become quite resistant to re wetting.