treebarb, I've been in love with Abies concolor for decades; have never owned one. I'll go peek at Lowe's. We haven't made a decision yet, family stuff in Florida happened and we just returned home. Do you think the shallow roots would be a problem? We don't want it falling over in the wind and hitting the house (but of course on a 3-foot Lowe's tree we'd not have to worry about that for a while)! The neighbor's trees are not any wind protection. One is at the very front of her house and the other smaller juniper is between our houses. The prevailing winds are straight up the slope much of the time, so whoever's out back is going to have to withstand 50+ up to highest measured at 76 mph. Doesn't happen all the time, of course, but I'd say 20% of the year at least. I just looked up Bosnian pine: "tolerant of severe wind exposure". I like its looks online, and it sounds like the ticket to me. Thanks for your helpfulness. I very much appreciate it.

Ive been looking up prunus for the last little bit to ID my own mystery tree (have a current post too). Its either Choke, black or pin cherry, maybe the remnants of something else, possibly a rootstock. The flowers are a dead give away. Also for what its worth, the third pic definitely has margins/serrations and are almost identical to the species i listed above. The flowers + the leaves at the very least give you an ID of some Prunus, and most likely some cherry. Can you get some closer pictures of the flowers please?

Sambucus, I believe. If so, a nice plant to have. FataMorgana

Phytolacca - Pokeweed I believe.