The three crapes along the east side of the driveway have not grown since planting in September 2017. The only thing we can find that might be the problem is that they are planted low with pine bark mulch over the top of the root ball. The root ball should have been left exposed.
We dug up the center and north ones. They had very little root mass and the roots were not still in the pot shape. The dirt around the roots and in the roots was the same and was good dirt. Got topsoil from the topsoil pile behind the grain bin and added to the hole so the root ball is above the adjacent dirt 1/2″-1″.
The southmost crape had bloomed last year and was slightly larger than the other two, When I went around it with the round point shovel to lift it out there were more roots. When I pried the shovel to raise it there were clearly roots that had grown down much more so that the other two. We left that one in place and removed all much over the root ball.
If there is not considerable growth in the early summer they will be relocated or tossed.
