Question
We planted 6 5ft Cherry Laurel Shrubs three days ago.  We removed healthy shrubs and plants from the bed to plant them.    
Some of the leaves at the top of the Laurels have gone brown.  Also healthy green buds have gone brown.  It was very, very windy when they were planted for 2 days.  Could they just be feeling shocked or have been damaged by blowing violently on the fence?

Is it possible they may have had weed killer sprayed on to them?  

Answer
Chris,

To completely answer this question, there is some information that is missing. I would need to know under what conditions they were planted, ie- open space, on the water, what type of after care they recieved (watering, fertilzer) and the differences in the air temperatures from day to day (was there a sudden drop in temperature after the plants were put in?).

The answers to these questions is important from a diagnostic standpoint. If the temperature dropped suddenly, then the plants were damage due to frost or winter dessication. Dessication could also be the culprit if the plants weren't watered heavily and regularly after planting.

If they were planted as a screen on a canal or salt water lake, then it is likely that they were damaged by salt water sprays. Transplant shock is also a possiblity depending on how they were planted (were they balled and burlapped and was the burlap untied and removed from the root system?).

I mentioned fertilizer, was a high nitrogen fertilizer mixed in with the back fill soil or was it applied to the ball itself. High nitrogen fertilizers will damage fine roots by removing moisture from the roots themselves.

Weed control is a possiblity only if it was sprayed on the other side of the fence and it was allowed to drift over said fence to damage only the tops. If it was applied to the soil around the base of the plants, it would have caused the entire plant to brown.

To try to save these plants, I would suggest fertilizing them with a low nitrogen fertilizer (if they haven't been fertilized already), maintaining a regular watering schedule and mulching the beds under them.

I hope this helped.
Good luck.
Ed Gulliksen