Thanks for the replies everyone! >>the first almost looks like a crepe myrtle (is that flowers on the tips?) >>The first one does look like a Japanese Maple to me, although I wouldn't guess at the cultivar. Nope, no flowers. Here's a closeup of the leaves of the tree (best I can do at 11pm). I'm pretty confident it's a japanese maple, just not too sure on the exact variant. Five tipped, full green leaf, red seeds & brownish green branches. Leaves turn a crimson during Fall. >># 2 is burning bush-euonymus alatus >>All badly pruned! The bottom should be slightly larger than the top to allow sunlight to the bottom leaves, not like a vase. Wow. I just googled that name and was very surprised how red some of these get. Mine might change color in the fall, but not to that level of redness (I wish!). Good to know though. Is this what proper pruning looks like for these? More globe-ish? Thanks again. I'm just about to begin a re-do of the landscaping. Just purchased a nice Canadian Hemlock to anchor the far left side and Jean's Dilly Albert Spruce for the far right side by the front door step. Trying to decide if I should try pruning the overgrown yews back or replace... and whether to keep the #2 (burning bush-euonymus alatus). Problem is if I keep them, I need another to balance the area and I'm sure I'll never be able to buy that matches the existing two.

There is some additional information on your lemon variety from this source: Morton, J. 1987. Sundry Hybrids and Rootstocks. p. 185Â186. In: Fruits of warm climates. Julia F. Morton, Miami, FL. See the link below to get to it online for free. As for pruning, I would suggest maybe pruning off the top shoot which seems extra vigorous, but other than that, citrus tend to develop rounded crowns of foliage on their own and they don't require much pruning. Good luck with it. There's lots of advice on caring for citrus (you can find it by searching this forum). However, your tree looks quite healthy, so just keep doing whatever you've been doing for 2 years! Cheers, Pelham Here is a link that might be useful: Volker Lemon from Morton's Book

Annabelle will bud on old wood here, so it should for you also. I think it's bud hardy to zone 3, so your new plants could be H. arborescens. And no need to prune Annabelle unless you want to other than to remove dead wood. I find it stays more upright with older wood left on, and it has many more, but slightly smaller flowers when unpruned. Mine is where snow comes off the roof, and in rough years branches get broken or the voles eat all the bark off the buried stems, so in those years I hard prune. If the stems look good coming out of winter, I don't. Nikko Blue probably won't ever bloom for you (bud kill), so I wouldn't bother. I'd be likely to spend a bit more and get a type of H. paniculata that is a bit more interesting than Pee Gee. There has been a lot of breeding in the last 10-15 years, and there's now a range of flower form and color (actually how long they stay in each of the 3 colors - lime, white, and pink - that they all pass through) as well as plant size. Pee Gee isn't a bad plant, but it is large and the flowers are much smaller than for many of them. I haven't had good luck with WM plants the very few times I've bought them, so I am far more likely to buy small starts mail order with a plant like H. paniculata that grows fast.

Re: mike­_home Et al In the case of the PO the average cost to run a 5-ton Waterfurnace Series 7 in all but the most brutal conditions would probably be ~51¢/hr. That’s hardly more to heat the whole house and to heat most of their DHW than the cost to run one 2kW baseboard heater in a studio apartment! Over capacity for cooling is no longer an issue as these systems are fully variable speed, blowers, compressors, flow centres and EEV’s. You can either size for cooling or full capacity heating without compromising effective cooling and dehumidification. The colder the climate, the more of a Big Deal defrost cycles become. Re: OP I’m not confident the proposed Mitsubishi HP will integrate well with your existing oil boiler hydronic system. This sounds more like a good solution for the installer, perhaps not so much for you. BTW: The proposed 3-ton Mitsubishi system has an EER rating of 12.5 and has an output of slightly more than 2-ton at 17˚F. This configuration might save some money but you will still be burning a lot of oil at a very low rate of efficiency if you don’t get to the meat of tackling your situation. By contrast, the Waterfurnace Series 7 has an EER rating of as high as 53.2. I still advise getting rid of the oil system completely, perhaps going completely all forced air and installing the most efficient system you can due to your high energy costs. Otherwise you’ll cringe for years to come opening your utility bills. ‘Buy once; cry once’! IMPO SR