Pinpoint^® Blue False Cypress Chamaecyparis lawsoniana

I bought three of these plants in 2019 because I, too, was struck by the beautiful color. They did well for about two years, then one of them started browning from the ground up, just as others here have described. I did some reading and discovered it might be root rot caused by the pathogen Phytophthora lateralis, which affects the Lawson false cypress in particular. If my plant has died because of this pathogen, the others next to it are probably goners, too, according to this article: https://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/the-untimely-demise-of-the-lawson-cypress/

We purchased one of these about a year and a half to 2 years ago and it has been doing great, until 2 weeks ago! All of a sudden it started turning brown and nearly the entire plant is brown except for one small side offshoot of growth. It made it through a very hot and wet summer, yet with a bit milder temps in the last couple of weeks has for some reason started to die. Not sure of the cause.

I am beyond disappointed with this plant. I saw them at my local garden center this year looking healthy and beautiful and I had never seen anything with a color quite like these. I had been eyeing them for a few months before I purchased two. Within weeks, one was completely crispy and the other is just not rooting in (despite using biotin starter fertilizer) and really needs to be staked badly. It is just falling over from any slight breeze. I took the dead one back to the store and when I went to see if I could just by a new one, all of the ones at the garden center looked just as dead as the one I had returned. This is the first shrub/tree I've had die on me yet and I am really sad. I wish these trees would live because they are the most beautiful color. I'm not quite sure what I could have done differently.... as far as I can tell, they got adequate water and they have full sun.