Beginner Gardening: Established Plants and Trees, 1 by omchodoy

omchodoy wrote:
I'm a total newbie at all types of gardening. I recently planted 3 blue-cone arborvitae trees/shrubs, a Chilean Mesquite Tree (Pictured), a daisy shrub and 2 Cosmos. I'm dealing with the dead-within-26 hours Cosmos and a dying but trying to come back daisy shrub. With each planting I read the instructions and follow them to the best of my ability. The one thing that keeps coming up that I can't find an answer to is "...until the tree (plant) is established". For example, the arborvitae stated to deep water daily for the first 2 weeks, then cut back to every other day, then every 2 days, and when established down to one to two days per week. The other plants also made references to increased maintenance until established. But I can't find an explanation as to how one knows a newly planted plant/tree "is established". I realize the tree is likely to be staked at least for the first six months (I'm expecting closer to a year) so I'm not looking for it to be established yet. I've seen things like "usually in the first year" etc. but how does one know it's established?