Maby sun heats up the fence wich radiates heat and dries needles near it. Foliage further away seems to be doing better. Or then again maby it is the shade. Looks like the top of the plant is desperately bending towards the light from the shade of the car. If it is only a shock caused by transfer lowest branches will later on correct the appearance when they grow towards the ground.

One thing, the root balls were very dense and next to impossible to separate even in a bucket of water. Better then to plant the root ball as-is so as not to cause shock trying to separate?
Good point about the fence but here's a photo of one of my 2 front yard Pendula's in it's early stages. You can see the bottom starting to dry up, this progressed to a third of all the bottom branches and most of the side away from direct sun.
I also planted big box store evergreen shrubs which dried all up and turned brown within a year. I've been watering every week. I don't get it,

One thing, the root balls were very dense and next to impossible to separate even in a bucket of water. Better then to plant the root ball as-is so as not to cause shock trying to separate?
Good point about the fence but here's a photo of one of my 2 front yard Pendula's in it's early stages. You can see the bottom starting to dry up, this progressed to a third of all the bottom branches and most of the side away from direct sun.
I also planted big box store evergreen shrubs which dried all up and turned brown within a year. I've been watering every week. I don't get it,

{{!gwi}}

Are you sure the first one is a Picea abies 'Pendula'?
It's needles has a blue cast, looks more like a Picea omorika weeping form to me...
Can you show us a detail pic of the branches and needles of both of them?
Thanks!

Right on, Big Box called that one Blue Norway Spruce, it does have a bluish tint.
Here's a closer crop of each for you to see.
By the way, 12 cedar trees from BB HD a year earlier also turned brown and died. My long established shrubs and rosebushes alongside do fine.

Looks like a Picea pungens to me.
Because of it's straight weeping habit it could be the cultivar 'The Blues' or Picea abies 'Weeping Blue'...

Is the second spruce the same one?

By the way, 12 cedar trees from BB HD a year earlier also turned brown and died.

==>>> so if i understand correctly...

EVERYTHING you have bought.. from bigboxstore has died.. or is dieing...

and you want us to tell you why??

am i with you so far????

well... wait for it...

its because you are buying carp stock from a freakin hardware store....

buy quality stock.. and avoid these problems...

you cant turn a bad plant.. into a good plant with fertilizer.. good soil... or anything else ... just stop buying bad plants... especially end of the year bargains ....

this is a case of trying to make a bargain work... and with trees.. it doenst work all the time....

mail order some quality stock from some place like conifer kingdom... or any local SPECIALTY conifer nursery .... and 99% of your problems will be solved [. this will not help the one planted 6 inches from a wheel-less car.. next to an 8 foot wall ... well it looks like a cinder block there ...]

and with your desire.. and limited space.. you need to look for mini conifers... so you can collect a few .... and use very little ground .... below is a pic of 15 or so mostly mini conifers around my patio .... i admit i screwed up on putting a few small dwarfs there .. but one thing for sure.. you wont find these at the hardware store....

ken

{{gwi:211254}}