Japanese White Pine Spotted - April 2022

There I was, wandering around the parking lot nursery at my local big box store when I saw it staring at me.  It was pulled off the pallet and was standing proud - almost as if another shopper was intrigued by it, pulled it out to get a better look and then abandoned it.  What am I talking about?  This beauty below - a Japanese White Pine - Pinus Parviflora Nana.

How does that make me feel?  Like this:

Why?  Because, I hemmed-and-hawed about this tree last year and FINALLY bought one when it dropped to 50% off.  I babied it.  And what happened?  It is dead.  All brown dead.  

The lure of this is strong, but I need to learn from my mistakes:  I'm not certain that this tree works for me, my garden and my zone.  But, do I really know?  Or, does it take two trees to be sure??  There's REALLY only one way to find out, right?