they are conifers.. and they are trees .. and everything happens in tree time ... and trust me.. nothing has happened in the last month .. tree time is counted in decades ...

perhaps they were bound for shipping.. and all you think you are seeing.. is it returning to its normal shape ...

btw... what does you seller say about it???

they are species seedlings... seed grown ... so they have all kinds of variations ... and there is nothing wrong with that.. i would guess in 20 years .. you wont see much of any difference ... they are not twins.. they are sibs ... so they dont all look alike ...

buds are set in summer for next spring ... that is all normal ... if they dont make it.. there were other issues ... like bad digging at tree farm.. bad planting.. horrible winter.. etc ...

did i miss anything else???

presuming they were properly planted.. and watered in ... they should be rather bulletproof .. with the only caveat being that bad digging from grower ... which we will never know about ...

worry about something else ...

ken

What Ken said...

make sure they get good water before ground freezes with a slow trickle from garden hose

ron

Spruce can get pretty big buds in the fall. Just so they don't start growing.

Late fertilization, after july, can cause unwanted growth in late Fall that can winter kill by spring.

Otherwise my spruce have had swelled buds in Fall but that's normal. They may take some winter damage but normally re-bud in spring just fine. Nothing to be done.

Make sure the original soil balls are moist all the way through before deep freezing starts.