Should I dig em up and replant?!

I just purchased several Japanese Maples: Beni Tsukasa, Fireglow, Full Moon Maple (Aureum), and a Kijo Hime. I also purchased a Korean Maple as well as a Wolfe Eye Dogwood.

The gentleman I purchased the trees from at the Nursery suggested I plant them in a mix of 1 part sand and one part mulch ( I do not know what the mulch was from). Both of these have very fine grains. I did so, but then found Dave's Garden Site and I started to second guess my decisions. So my first question is: Should I dig them up and replant them in a more appropriate mix? Another question I have is on the location of the trees.

This said, I feel it important to backfill in some information which will impact what feedback I receive in hopes to flesh out my questions and provide the opportunity more informed feedback. I live in Enumclaw, Wa., Zone 4, on a plateau just below the foothills of Mount Rainier. The soil in my yard is fairly good draining though in some places I do have layers of clay below the surface top soil where water tends to stand a bit at first before it drains, especially when we get downpours-this area is on the North side of the house only and the water standing has some to do with my own compaction of the soil too-I have been working in the area quite a bit so I have compacted the surface topsoil. Large rocks in the soil are a problem but I just remove them when I am preparing to plant. Another important piece of info is that the plateau gets some high winds in the fall, winter and spring months; sometimes up to 75 miles an hour or more. This spring has been wet, wet, wet, and colder than normal too. We also had a sucker hole in the weather in February which fooled plants suggesting an early spring; my hydrangeas were the most notably gullible. They shut down when the weather went cold again. They're looking pretty funkadelic especially with their old wilted blooms being showed off with their more recent flourishing blooms. We also had a week of 70 degree weather around Mothers day which scorched the blooms off the Wolfe Eye Dogwood and shocked the Beni Tsukasa-it lost most of it's pink colors and started to go green. Some of the Korean maples leaves dried out and it went, in some places, to fall colors of orange and red. I was gone for that week and my fiance forgot to water them making maters worse (all the trees were in pots at the time of the 70 degree week-Korean Maple 5 gallon, Wolfe Eye 5 gallon, Beni Tsukasa 3 gallon- I didn't have the Full Moon or Kijo Hime yet).

Additionally, the Full Moon is still in the original pot. I have just prepared it's bed on the North side of the house. It gets morning sun from about 9:30am until 12:30 presently. As summer comes on and we shift past the solstice it will get less and less. It's color changed signficantly in the last week too. It went from a two tone green and lime to a three tone-rust, green and lime; I think it has just put out some pigment in it's skin to protect itself from the increase in light or sun-I know it's not pigment for trees but the metaphor works. The upper story is rusting on the leading edges of some leaves with a few at the topmost being all rust, The lime is still holding true on the understory with green at the mid story. It's in a 5 gallon container set in the ground. Should I be worried about the color changes? Could the change be associated to a trifold change in moisture, change in location and change in the level of sun due to it's recent movement from the nursery, where it was in full shade-setting in the understory of mature conifers impacting how much water it received as well?

The fire glow I repotted into a ceramic, glazed 10 gallon pot from a 7 gallon. I used the nursery suggested mix of 1 part sand to 1 part mulch. I also currently have it on the back deck in full sun from 9:30am until 3:30pm on the East side of the house.

I repotted the Kijo Hime, again in the nursery suggested mix; it was in a 3 gallon pot and is now in a 5 gallon ceramic pot. It is underneath the fire glow on the back deck facing east with full sun
Some more info, if it's not already obvious, I have never gardened before.

The Korean maple is in the ground on the West facing side of the house receiving afternoon and evening sun. The Wolfe Eye and the Beni Tsukasa are also in the gound on the Northwest corner of the house receiving a splash of AM sun and a splash of evening sun. All plants just noted were also put in the nursery suggested mix. I did mix a bit of the existing topsoil into the mix but a very small amount. None of the trees were given any fertilizers in their mix.

Thanks in advance for any perspectives shared,
Aureum ti dum ti dum

I'm sure someone with more experience will post...but sand and mulch does sound a strange combination. Also...I'm a bit shocked and/or confused that anyone would think that 70 degrees would scorch..??? It may be unseasonably warm for your location, but JMs can take more heat than that...this I know from experience!

I have the same reaction to the sand and mulch combination--sounds odd to me but not being a JM expert I can't tell you what the ideal mix would be. I also worry about hardiness--if you're really in zone 4, you're going to need to bring the JM's in for the winter. People in zone 5 can even have trouble with some of them, so I don't think they're going to be happy at all with zone 4 winters. So the ones that are planted in the ground would probably be best off planted in pots that you can bring in for the winter.

70 degrees in small containers with limited no water for the week is what I believe scorched them.

According to the Western Garden Book by Sunset I am listed as Zone 4. I've seen Zone for on this website suggesting minus 20 degrees and no we don't get that in the Northwest. We might get one blast in the single digits but even that is rare. We are maritime due the coastal influence. The winds in Enumclaw would be my biggest cold season concern.

Still,
Aureum ti dum ti dum

Sunset zone 4 and USDA zone 4 aren't the same thing so disregard what I said then. Sunset zones aren't very useful on here unless you run into someone from close to your area--most people here except those in the west aren't familiar with them at all, and even those of us from the west are usually only familiar with what the conditions are like in the zones that occur near us. If you're going to mention your zone, I'd suggest using whatever USDA zone you're in (guessing zone 7 or 8? Most of the PNW is zone 8, but since you're at higher elevation maybe you'd be in 7) or else specify Sunset zone 4, that way people won't get confused and give you advice that doesn't apply to you.

I haven't had time to read your long post entirely but two things come to mind ... I have no idea what went on in your conversion with the seller...What the seller says makes "some" sense for what you would plant them in containers... with although most out their use pine bark and pumice and bark fines, and ferttilizer in spring .Sand just doesn't cut it and maybe pine bark mulch which is basically just pine bark to be used as mulch but not true mulch which has way too much nitrogen...... so that quasi concoction makes some sense for a container . For planting I don't think you probably need anything if your soil is good .. as far as digging up well I would probably wait til next year.. Futzing with Jms is a good way to stress them out ... mistakes happen but it is unlikely your concoction will hurt anything.. messing with it may

This message was edited Jun 7, 2010 7:30 AM

Thanks myersphch and ecrane3. I will leave them be for now and can see what your suggesting relative to the container planting reference versus in ground being quasi correct for a container mix though not ideal. I also looked up my zone as per the USDA chart and I am listed as a zone 7. Super good guess ecrane3!

I guess it's obvious as stated in my original post, I am getting schooled and love it! Life long learners=open minds. Anyone else have comments?