Question
We bought 3 colorado blue spruces last spring and unfortunately were not able to plant them until early fall. We keep the trees in the shade and kept their root balls well watered as the nursery recomended. The trees seem to do well upon being planted through the winter. However they all are now showing a browning of branches on the bottom and we have not seen any new growth buds on the ends. The planting location is in a very sunny spot. Are the trees dying or is there something we can do to treat them?

Answer
As long as the top branches are green and show signs of at least some growth the tree is not dying. Trees tend to shed lower nedles as they grow but I would think most of this shedding is caused by the shock of replanting and they should survive. You did not say what part of the countyr you lived in so I assume that Colorada spruce is native to that area. Sometimes if one plants a species way out of its natural range the tree dose not do well.