Amelanchier lamarckii

KirstyWY

I have two of these trees. Planted in autumn 2018. One has flowered and now has coppery leaves, the other flowered poorly and does not have any leaves (or, it seems, any leaf buds). I have scraped a little of the bark back on a branch and it's green underneath, I assume this means it's not dead. Is there any reason why it would not have leaves? They are planted about 10 ft apart, same clay soil, same conditions - soil dries out quickly, and I have been watering.

Fairygirl

Were they given adequate water for the first 6 months or so? Also - was the ground properly prepped, and the roots teased out before planting?
Have you a photo? 

KirstyWY

It rained non-stop over winter. Then since the middle of last month I've watered every fortnight or so as our soil dries out fast.

Bit of a difficult one to photograph, but here's the stems where the flowers are dying off, but there's no sign of leaves at all anywhere on the tree.

Fairygirl

I can't see anything wrong with that, but there isn't much to go on.

I meant - was the ground well prepped first, before planting? Clay soil is an excellent medium, but can be heavy over winter, and dries out in summer [unless you live in an area like I do, where there's regular rain] so it needs some attention before planting, to give plants of any kind a good start. Lots of organic manure to open up the soil structure. It can be a sump in heavy rainfall otherwise, which can also cause problems.

Amelanchiers are very easy though - and shouldn't need help once established. It also depends on what size they were when planted too, as smaller specimens will take a while to get to any size and maturity, and large ones need a fair bit of attention to establish well. Trees/shrubs also still need watered when planted, even in autumn. 

KirstyWY

It's in a part of the garden that's difficult to photograph, up a steep slope, but the ground where it's planted is fairly level. Will try and take a better photo tomorrow. I added lots of compost before planting, and everything was fine last year, it's just there's such a difference between the two trees. They're both about 8-9ft. Will watch and wait.