Why do these saplings keep dying?

I've replanted them at least 3 times now. There are no trees surrounding it, and there's 1 tile of space all around the sapling.

Why do they keep dying? Are they just dead spots? It seems a bit coincidental that both dead spots are in the same row and mess up my pattern of trees in the spot.

Could just be a dead spot. There are some areas that won't grow trees or bushes.

The cedar will only grow in the northern half of town, so make sure you aren't just over line with that. I've lost a few because I didn't realize I was too far south.

Yeah, if they are too far south the cedar saplings will die. It's a stupid rule.. I love how they look and I wish I could put them everywhere.

Oh yeah, thank you for the answers! Looks like I was very unlucky and just managed to cross the southern line of my town.

The dead spots actually don't stay the same all the time. So if you get a dead spot try it again at a later date. I had a bush sapling that I wanted to plant in a specific spot. It always died, but I just went on with something else. Eventually a month later or so, I planted it again thinking I'd get the same results. It actually grew this time, for some reason...I'm guessing dead spots don't stay permanent.

And yeah that's a cedar, they can only grow in the northern parts. I guess they want to keep it geographically realistic in that most northern areas have cedar plants. It still is kind of a silly rule, considering how small New Leaf's map already is compared to the other games.

The dead spots actually don't stay the same all the time. So if you get a dead spot try it again at a later date. I had a bush sapling that I wanted to plant in a specific spot. It always died, but I just went on with something else. Eventually a month later or so, I planted it again thinking I'd get the same results. It actually grew this time, for some reason...I'm guessing dead spots don't stay permanent.

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This, sort of. I don't personally believe in "dead spots", but from my understanding there IS a rule regarding how many trees/bushes can be planted in an acre. I am not referring to the rule about the number of bushes/trees that can be touching in a row. I can't remember the exact rule, however, but it had something to do with only be able to plant X amount of trees/bushes in a 7x7 area. So, I would be willing to bet that this is what causes those 'dead spots' and is also why sometimes those dead spots seem to vanish (assuming something changed in that area as far as the number of trees/bushes. I'm not sure if flowers count, i highly doubt it).