RE: planting a tree of remembrance.
At the university library where I used to work we had a ceremony and planted a tree brought in from a nursery to remember a woman librarian who had died.
Within a month in late spring, the tree had shriveled up, the leaves turned almost black, the bark was looking brittle and it looked like a twisted dead tree in a horror movie. The nearby trees were fine.
You plant trees in the spring for a reason....
Did whoever was supposed to take care of it know to water it?