Hello and thank you for your time.
First off I am very novice and I appreciate any help. We had a memorial spot for my mother-in-law with a Flowering weeping fountain tree. It made it about two years and I dug it up to replace with a new order. It did ok for those two years but this year there was no life at all, complete brittle. I was able to pull it out of the ground. I am thinking that it had bad drainage and the roots just set water logged.
Here is some details:
Our yard has a lot of clay
I live in the Charlotte, NC growing zone.
I just ordered a 5-Gallon Weeping Yoshino Cherry Tree to try in that spot. Currently the hole is about three feet wide and 2.5 deep.
Any advice would be appreciated such as should I plant it more like a mound since so much clay, level to ground, watering tips...anything would be appreciated.
On another topic I also ordered an Autumn Moon Japanese Maple we are planning to keep in a pot before putting in the ground maybe in a year or two that is 3-gallons.
Any tips on how to give these trees their best chances would be greatly appreciated.
I've included some poor night time pics to show the soil. My apologies.