conifers are trees...

all trees releader .. period ..

with some selective pruning as to form and shape .. it should recover over the next few years... especially with no insult to its root mass ..

a pic would sure help us.... help you decide .... if its worth the wait.. or to go for replacement ... personally.. i dont like transplants that big ...

ken

ps: i dont understand what you mean by split .... was it a multi-leadered plant to begin with????

Single leader tree, either the trunk froze and burst or combination of freezing and I'll-timed high wind bent it over and it burst. Out of a row of nine, it only got the one in the middle.

its always the middle one... one of murphys rules i believe ...

w/o the pic.. it hard to answer whether replacement is preferred ...

ken

So essentially, you lost the top half of the tree? I'd replace it. It is never going to regain an appearance similar to its neighbors and will likely remain stunted and ill-formed.

Just so you know, trees with damaged leaders don't necessarily repair themselves. Depends on species and how severe the damage may be. In many cases, an adjacent lateral shoot needs to be trained to become a new leader......without this training the tree may just remain with a stunted, deformed growth habit.