What to do about incorrectly planted trees...

I just moved to the area and paid a landscaper to build a large bed, amend soil, mulch, and plant 21 trees that I purchased from a tree farm. My trees went into shock immediately. Unfortunately, the weather spiked about 20 degrees from the time I bought them to when they were delivered, and it was about 100 degrees. He used root stimulator, and some trees were in pots and others were in burlap.

Since I have been babying the trees to keep them alive, I noticed that the soil here is horrible clay. Texas gumbo, I think. I am looking under the mulch, and I think he planted the trees directly into the clay. If any amendments were made, I can't tell.

I know compost is the best thing for clay, but I've read conflicting info. Do I till compost around the trees or should I just start piling it on to get worms in the bed, working through the clay? I need some help here. About 5 of the 21 look really rough with almost no leaves left. Oh, and my clay concerns are driven by the fact that the trees are always wet. I dropped my sprinkler back to one day a week, but we are in 100 degree temps, and I don't even need to hand water them. HELP!

Summer has to be the worst time to plant trees but what's done is done. Do not till when trees are in place - you could damage roots as they desperately are putting out new growth to feed the tree. Do not "pile" compost on either - this can smother a tree's feeder roots - top dressing is okay and that means a light layer of compost and/or fertilizer. A layer of mulch would be the appropriate thing to do - it will help keep evaporation down and keep the soil temps more even through the day and seasons. Glad to hear you found out that the soil was staying wet and cut back on watering - too much water will drown the roots but if too dry then roots will die from lack of water. Hopefully you have some kind of guarantee on the work and plants for a year or more. Fall would be the best time to replace any that die this summer.

Thanks for the response. They currently have about 3 inches of cedar mulch. It sounds like there is nothing to do at this point, except to wait for the mulch to break down and start enriching the clay dirt around the trees, is that correct? Is there not a way to improve the soil now?

I don't think enriching soil will help at this point - it's more about roots pushing out into its new surroundings and getting adequate water and nutrients. You could try to shade them with some temporary structure/shade cloth so that they are less stressed. You could dig them up, put them back in pots, and move them to some shady spot until fall (lots of experts recommend heeling in plants until fall - this works well when you don't have time to plant in summer and want to save your stock). This would allow you to till your bed again to be ready for fall planting. If they lost their leaves they may have gone dormant for the year or dying/dead (a lot of my ornamental cherries start losing their leaves in late July and completely bare by late August but they always come back and bloom next spring). Are any of your trees grafted? If so then the graft may be dead but the roots may send up a new shoot. Lots of possibilities without knowing any more details.

I don't know if any are grafted. I have an Oklahoma redbud that had all leaves turn crispy red brown, but they never dropped. It is alive, and now I have two new shoots from the base of the trunk. Three of them (ok redbud and two sweet gums) still have green leaves, but have lost most of their leaves. The rest were hit hard, but I think they are stable. I have noticed my little gem magnolias are producing buds, but the buds turn brown and fall off before they bloom. Several vitex and Nellie r Stevens hollies have lichens and mildew growing on trunks. None of those trees are getting worse, but I think they are delicate and sitting in poor conditions.