i cant really focus on the brown parts ...

properly its Picea pungens Thune

if they were grown in a field for say.. 5 years... and brown part might just be digging damage ... i have personally tried to dig such.. and it happens ... you dont want a ball twice as big as the plant.. so you have to work the shovel under ... and damage happens ...

the damage might not show... until months later ...

i would most likely.. just trim off the brown parts ... and if you did.. you could take a better pic .. and we might see if we see anything..

its just too coincidental.. the browning is all in the same place ... across all the plants ... disease is usually not that methodical ...

ken

Could also be damage from frost. If the buds near the ground were more advanced than higher up (warmer near the ground), they could have been knocked back by a frost while the spruce were in a nursery storage yard somewhere.

It's very possible they weren't watered properly/enough.

Dax

Unless you purchased it at a bargain basement price and are willing to accept your loss if it doesn't make it then pass. Nursery's usually will not refund sale/discount prices on plants.

We do need a close up of the damage for a clearer guesstimate on what is going on.

It could be just damage from improper handling at the nursery that needs to be pruned out. If that's all then a simple fix that in time will never be noticed. I am surprised they have not already done this. A red flag for sure. Nursery's will usually quarantine plants that are suspect for a time to see if they recover to the point where they are acceptable for sale to the public.

Dave

Thanks for the quick replies guys! I'll take some close-up shots this afternoon and upload it here.

I would just return it, that's going to be a problem. To be honest, this looks just like what I would see for sale at Home Depot... local nurseries should be taking these plants off the pallets and usually remove those tacky marketing tags like "Blue As Ice"... At a minimum your going to have to cut out those dead branches and hope it can bounce back.

I would return it and find a higher quality nursery.

close up shot #1

close up shot #2

close up shot #3

close up shot #4

As Davesconifers mentioned, I realized as well that it's not refundable as it's on sale. So hopefully it won't be too much of a trouble to fix/treat it...

I'd look at the root ball. That will tell the tale.
Looks like B&B stuffed in a pot. Any burlap?
Mike

There's no burlap. What should I look for on the rootball once it's removed out of the container?