emerald cedar question: I planted a row of emeralds last week. This is my second time doing this. the first batch did not work out so well.

my question is about spacing. I put the ball roots about foot and half - two feet apart. the bottoms of the trees touch each other. the tops do not.

is it ok to clip the bottom of the cedars, so that there is room for the remaining branches/needles to "breathe"?

last year, when bunched together the needles died. Im just not sure if it safe to clipp back the needles with out damaging them ?

any thoughts would be great.

thanks