Our Small Fraser Fir: Lost

It is not all gardening wins for me this Summer.  Sometimes the losses are just as important.

I celebrated the planting of this small Fraser Fir in our backyard just 10 weeks ago at the beginning of June.  It was in a good spot in the yard that had plenty of water and it was taking off.  There was a run of new, soft growth that came on the tree in July, then all of a sudden, it started to go brown.  From the top down.  Now, two weeks after I noticed the first bit of brown, the whole thing is gone.  Sad stuff.

Not sure if it was water.  Or location.  Or something else like a disease.  It went really fast.  And the shot of new growth followed directly by the brown-out makes me wonder if it was disease-related?

This was the 22nd tree that we had planted in our backyard as part of the reforestation process and the second evergreen.  We've added a Hemlock since, though.  I bought this one at Home Depot who has a 1 year warranty, so I'll have to dig this thing up and bring it back into the store.  Unfortunately, they don't have any more of these on hand this season, so it might be better to wait until next season and swap it out for a new one.

Our grow-your-own Christmas tree dream has died.  Literally.

Those keeping track at home, this is the third tree that we've lost out of 25 that we've planted.
First was the large Chanticleer Flowering Pear out front that we replaced.  The replacement is struggling, too!

Then was the Dawn Redwood that never came back this winter and I replaced it with another one.  I've been baby-ing the replacement.

And now this Fraser Fir.  We're down to two conifers that I'm going to try to nurse along for the remainder of the Summer season.