We had a blue spruce tree planted last Spring. It’s now dead. Two months ago, the arborist who represents the company we bought the tree from came out to take a look and said that the tree did not get enough watering over the Fall and Winter. Yesterday, I had a landscape architect out for a project we’re doing. He looked at it and thought the tree suffered from being planted too deep and not having been staked. He suggested I get a second opinion. When this tree was planted I asked that it be staked because, at the time, my sprinkler guy had come out to add a sprinkler head near the tree to ensure the tree would get enough water. He was concerned that it needed staking, saying that he’d seen many trees like this go down as a result of not staking. When I asked the arborist about it, she said to me that the team planting the tree determines if a tree needs staking based on the size of the root ball, and they’d apparently determined it was adequate enough to not need staking. The tree leans quite a bit at this point, more so than when it was first planted. As mentioned, I’m sure the tree got enough water over the summer due to my adding that sprinkler head. Last Fall was very dry so I watered the tree manually, after my sprinklers were turned off, through the end of the year. I did not water the tree after December. Looking at these pictures, and knowing the backstory, what is your assessment? Thanks very much for taking a look!