Thuja Occidentalis "Emerald Green" turning brown after planting

Hi...I just purchased (4) 7 ft. thuja occidentalis "Emerald Green" from Costco Mid-Sept and they are already turning brown around the middle. I'm not sure what I did wrong. I live in Virginia and the soil is clayish. I literally planted them a few days ago and it rained the entire day. When I purchased them, they were very green and lush. Did I do something wrong. I am planning on planting 6 more.

Thank you for you time and much needed help!
EWestcott

 

Probably got dried out sitting in the warehouse, before you bought them. CostCo here don't seem to make much provision for watering their plants. Look inside rootballs to see if they are dust beneath the surface.

http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda Chalker-Scott/Horticultural Myths_files/Myths/B&B root ball.pdf

 

Mr. Rob B,

Do you think they will be ok? Is there anything I can do? Or are they dead? I would hate to dig them out after I did all this hard work to plant them.

Thank you for your help,
EWestcott

 

I was looking at picking a bunch of these up tomorrow at Costco. Did you ever find out if there was a way to bring the green back? I was at Costco a few days ago and some are already brown so I was hoping there is a way to bring the green back. $16 a tree isn't a bad price and I need about 30 or so.

 

Due to markedly reduced sales of trees and shrubs in recent years growers' fields in Oregon are a forest of large, unsold stock. I am sure this is the reason for the appearance of big shrubs for small prices at warehouse stores here. If you look at them most can be seen to have been dug with small balls and stuffed into minimally sized containers not long before being trucked to CostCo, Home Depot etc. So I think many are going brown due to not having enough roots to keep the tops hydrated, even before being subjected to inadequate/lacking watering in an indoor warehouse store or hot parking lot sales yard.

 

So if I pick these up, is there a good safe way to give more room for the roots? As in how should I plant it with expanding the roots?