We planted 5 weeping cypress in the fall, about 4 feet tall. They are all turning brown and the ground around them seems to have sunk below the root ball. We followed the directions to avoid planting it too low in the ground; now I wonder if we planted it too high. Any other reasons for the sorry look of these trees?
If these happened to be Kashmir cypress they died in the winter cold. Otherwise probably you are talking about Nootka cypress (Alaska cedar), this is very hardy but possibly these were also damaged by cold anyway having been planted from containers in fall. If they were planted too late to root out before severe cold this might have happened despite the inherent hardiness of ESTABLISHED specimens. Otherwise probably the potting soil dried out or the planting location got too wet. Potting soil is usually coarser than natural soil on planting sites and tends to lose water to it, newly planted stock must be watered extra carefully (or bare-rooted at planting) to overcome this. Likewise a damp soil may shed water into a planting hole during wet condition, in the same way that a sump collects water. The sinking of the planting hole soil after planting may point to a damp situation. It could also imply you used amended backfill, this is not ago idea for same reasons as when intact potting soil rootballs are planted in finer-textured native soil.
