City workers in Port St. Lucie, Florida trudged to the front lawn of city hall recently to chop down the eighth Christmas tree that has perished in as many years in virtually the same spot.

Head caretaker John Dunton, who handpicked the latest tree from a front yard in, ahem, Live Oak, had great hopes for the evergreen after a plant autopsy revealed the previous victim died of overwatering from a faulty sprinkler head.

With the sprinkler system repaired and drainage tests revealing good soil, Dunton watched as city contract landscaper Nature's Keeper donated and planted the majestic Southern red cedar on Nov. 18, a few weeks before the much-awaited tree-lighting ceremony.

A few weeks after the glorious event, a sickly brown color encircled the juniper's top branches. Within a few months the cedar was more scorched-earth than evergreen, leaving onlookers to wonder whether it could spontaneously combust in the midst of Florida's record drought.

Although some have advised Dunton to choose a more fertile patch of ground in the wake of eight failures, he's recommending a new course of action: a cut tree for the 2007 Christmas season.

City Manager Don Cooper, who will await the outcome of property tax reform in Tallahassee before deciding whether to splurge on a colossal cut tree, said it's likely city council members will shift the annual tree-lighting extravaganza across town to City Center next year anyway.

"I hope it will have a better future there," said Cooper, who generally dislikes talking about the city's dismal record of growing Christmas trees but had little option Monday when subordinates declined to be quoted. "We'll have a lot more room."

Drought, too much water and hurricanes are blamed for past deaths. The only tree to survive more than a few years was the first, and it was intentionally cut in 1998 to make way for a new city hall building. That led former Mayor Bob Minsky to wonder whether the city's ritual was cursed forevermore