what is going on with my Holly Trees?

Broche07

These 2 guys used to look pretty good and now they look pretty ragged? They are reasonably well watered and we give them them some food now and again so they neglected but should we be doing some more, are they diseased?

Thanks

looksee

I would say they don't like being in those pots, which are too small for the size of the trees anyway. They probably dried out, one looks as though it is dead, the other looks very stressed. If you can plant it in the garden I would do so, even if you put it in a bigger pot I doubt it will be happy, they are not really suited to pots.

Nonmonotonic

+1 on the pots. Trees in pots live a very precarious life! I suspect the size of rootball of both will make it very difficult to get them out of the pots without breaking them. Many large potted trees/shrubs were killed during the very cold weather due to the fact that pots freeze more due to the small mass than if they were directly in the ground.

john t

Replant both in sunny part of garden....plus water regularly.

gardenman77

Unfortunately young hollys got decimated by the frost earlier in the year. More mature specimens were able to survive this. The fact that they were in pots meant they were doubly susceptible to frost as the roots froze rapidly above ground. The chances are that root rot disease will have affected them subsequently so planting in the garden probably won't save them. They look to be well gone.
As they are in nice planter at the door, I would replace with something suitable. If we get frosts like last year, very little suitable for an entrance will survive again, so I'd say just pull them inside during the worst of it.