Would need to see a much closer pic of the plant leaves but could you tell us where in zone 6 you are located?

A plant of this size, age, and development regardless of the variety already outside in zone 6 could easily be nothing more than cold weather damage as most are only just now planting their plants.

Dave

This pic better? I live in southern KY just about straight north across the border from Nashville. I bought the plant when it was about 1.5 ft tall. The lady at the nursery said I could go ahead and plant it cause we wouldn't have any more frosts this year. Thanks so much for the help.

I would just clean up the dead and yellowed leaves and fertilize the plant a bit more. The damage is environmental. Once it warms up and you feed it , it should bounce back.
JMO.

The lady at the nursery said I could go ahead and plant it

Don't you just love nursery people that throw out advise with little concern for if it is accurate or not. Not to mention selling plants that already 1.5 feet tall.

Yeah what you are seeing is lots of environmental damage and the results of root damage from a plant that was too old and big to tolerate transplanting and was planted out way too early without protection or pre-warming of the soil. Variety has nothing to do with the problems.

As mentioned, strip off all the affected foliage, feed it well and cross your fingers. It may have already been exposed to bacteria or fungus issues given its weakened condition so if it was mine I'd plan to use a regular fungicide spray program on it too to increase its odds of thriving.

And do please avoid overwatering it. It will need time and somewhat drier soil for the roots to recover.

Dave