Not familiar with this particular tree (cedar?) but are the needles that are falling more yellow or brownish in color?

Most conifers will shed a certain amount of needles each year, mostly on the inner branches. They only hold needles from one to three years generally.

And I don't know how cool your spring has been but in some areas, spring has been slow to get going. You may just have to be patient for warmer weather to green things up a bit.

I don't know what your soil is but coarse soils are notorious for lacking magnesium and sulfur. But no use adding things that aren't needed. A soil test would give you the best indication of what's needed to 'perk things up', if you haven't done that already.

Planted last year? It needs a good soaking of the original root ball it came with.

Planted last year. I don’t know what it is as my sister in law loves removing plant labels for some reason. We are in north Georgia so red clay soil. We have had tons of rain, but I can give it a good soaking.
I was going to spread some of the shavings from my chicken coop in the vegetable and perennial beds, is that something to consider around any of the conifers?

havent had enough coffee yet.. but could you give us pix not in noon day sun .. its causing shadows within the plant.. which makes it hard to tell color ...

Can do.

Those yellowed needles are not from the tree sloughing off old needles. It's the whole branch worth.

Agree on checking the planting depth. Root flares planted too deep are a death sentence to the tree.

Can be seen to be planted too deep in first of last three photos. Can also be seen to be a Cedrus as previously suggested, in this case C. deodara. Maybe one of the smaller growing, pale foliage cultivars from Vancouver Island.

Sickly appearance, yellowing branch and needles falling, buried root flare could very well be why. And if there's been plenty of rain, I don't think that dry the problem.

Annettle,

Can you find the root flare by moving the mulch back by hand?

If not can you find it if you dig a little soil away with your hand, carefully so not to damage any bark or root covering?

Intact potting soil root balls are quite good at shedding water to surrounding, finer textured natural soil. This continues as long as the potting soil maintains a coarse texture. So that well established plants that have been in place for years can be found to still have dry potting soil at their bases.

I will check it when I get home. When we originally planted it, it seemed to be too high. But all the rain over the winter has caused so many issues. Including a 4 ft deep sinkhole beside the driveway. There seems to be some sort of tank in this area(we just discovered a random pipe coming out of the ground this winter) so everything seems to be sinking in that area. It’s not the septic as that is on the other side of the property.

Buried root flares sometimes happen when the hole is dug too deep, then soil is replaced into the hole to remedy that problem. What happens next is the loose soil never gets tamped down to it's previous firmness and over time, the tree can settle into the hole further than desired.

I keep getting home too late to get a pic. But I will say that after standing way back, it is on that the sink hole I referred to is having an effect. It looks like the entire east side has sunk, so it is too deep on that side and now lopsided. Should I dig it up and replant higher up?

Yes, it's the only way you'll fix the problem.

I was informed of a method by another forum member that 2 people with a couple of pitch forks or potato forks, one person on each side, can simultaneously leverage a smaller tree upwards, in the ground several inches and use the garden hose to move more soil down into the cavities, with minimal disturbance of the roots.

Water the tree well before using this method.

:-)

eta: Also once raised, remove any soil that's been on top of the root flare so the flare is exposed slightly at the surface.

Will do, thanks. I have some time off tomorrow, or maybe later today so will get this done. Thanks so much.

Ok, pulled out some tools and got home lifted up and leveled out. And a nice soak after.

Wow!

Before and after pic? Big difference.

Is that the graft we see now just above ground level in the second pic?

I believe so. It may be a bit high now, but I’m not sure that sinkhole is done yet. I will keep a close eye on it over summer.

Okay, a bit high is fine. I just couldn't see it good enough by looking at the picture.

You might not see immediate results, the longer a tree has been in that condition, the longer it can take to recover, if at all. But good job spotting the problem so you could correct it so quickly.

:-)

Thanks to all of you! I am a horrible winter gardener. I do everything in my power not to be outside when it gets below about 55 degrees. So I tend to overdo in the spring as I’ve been dying to be outside. Of course, it being Georgia, it’s not too long before it’s unbearably hot.