Question
i moved into a house in the mid-north of nj about 2.5 yrs ago. there are 4 beautiful full green srubs in the backyard. the srubs are all the same, i don't know what they're called so i'll try to describe them as best as possible. very full very healthy, deep green, soft needle not leaves. if it helps, right now they are all forming a nice lighter green bud all the way around...except for the one i transplanted two weeks ago. i thought i dug a substantial diamiter for the hole but fear that i cut the roots too close to the trunk. i dug a decent size hole for the transplant, mixed up a good amount of rich topsoil before i did any of this, filled the hole with a bit of miricalegrow plant and srub topsoil, placed a couple of srub and tree nutrient stakes the in the soil the proper distance from the srub base, watered the hole, back filled and... the srub is turning brown, dying i assume. i've been watering it at the root base regularly. i have a dense clay based soil that may be part of the problem. is there anything i can add to the soil to jump start the roots to reestablish themselves? or any other advise?

really need some advice the srubs are important to me.
thank you very much.

-j

Answer
Joe,
The shrub is definately an evergreen, of which type I cannot be certain without a better description, but I can still help.
If the soil outside the root ball that you dug is clay, you may be overwatering it. It is not recommended to amend the soil when backfilling. The rich topsoil that you put in is holding the water, but it has no where to go rapidly due to the dense caly outside the area. The roots may be drowning.
The next concern that I have is the amount of fertilizer that you have applied to the roots system. Too much nitrogen fertilizer can burn out the tender roots that the shrub is trying to replace. (As far as the roots, You said you may have cut the roots too close to the trunk. I hope that this is not the case since the majority of the feeder roots that suppy the plant with water and nutrients are located at the ends of the roots near the dripline.) The combination of the fertilizer spikes and the fertilizer that is usually mixed into the Miracle Gro topsoil may be too much for the plant to handle.
I would lay off the watering for a few days and if possible remove some of the fertilizer spikes. Water it twice a week if we don't get rain for an extended period of time.
Good luck.
Ed Gulliksen