Crap I think maybe I’ve killed another cedar. Ok there really is no maybe the thing is dead as a doornail. This was the last remaining cedar left from a second round of 3 planted along the front of the house. Seeing how badly the first set of cedars did in this spot it should have occurred to me to plant something else but I’m awfully stubborn and I wanted emerald cedars. I was hoping that I had simply un-wrapped them too early and they had frozen.So I replaced the first set of dead cedars with new ones. I tried to make sure that they were really well rooted before the next winter set, gave them a lot more care than the first set and they were growing and looking great. I wrapped them up for winter but come spring as soon as they were unwrapped I knew they were dead.
One was still half alive and thinking that perhaps I could save it I moved it to the softer soil in the backyard where it would get watered with the garden each morning. It seemed to do really well, it lost the sickly brown tinge and was putting out new branches and looked great by fall.
We have had a particularly bitter winter this year and it may not have completely recovered from the previous one but it is most assuredly unrecoverable this time. Judging by the total lack of foliage on it and the fact that you can snap branches off like matchsticks I’m going to have to concede defeat.
I’m usually not that bad with plants, I wouldn’t go as far as to say I'm good with plants but this is the first time I’ve had trouble with outdoor ones. Indoors I’ve killed a number of plants but that can be attributed to things such as buying tropical plants in a not so tropical environment or forgetting that radiators get hot in winter and will quickly crisp a plant set beside it.
I planted dwarf spruce in the place of the cedars and they don’t seem to be doing well in this spot either. It’s either just not a plant friendly spot or I have a bit more to learn about what can survive outdoors in a Manitoba winter. I’ve heard I’m not the only one with cedar or dwarf spruce problems and as it turns out the deer around here also like to eat them so it looks like I’m probably going to have to get out my shovel and try one more time. 
