Plant your tree straight into the ground, no pot, no pruning, nothing else but a good watering. Put in filtered sun, but more sun than shade. Just wait til spring (at least), though 3 yrs would be much better for development, but right now your best bet for its survival is just planting it. It can never live inside... forget it, and the label it came with (along with a whole lot of other plants it was probably attached to). While you wait for spring, read up on bonsai as much as you can, and you'll know what to do next when it's time. At least you can throw out the potting soil - unsuitable.

As far as an extension service, I'm 7 miles from Boston. There's only one extension service in MA at UMass Amherst. I expect I'm on my own with regards to help there. It's why the Tree Forum is so helpful. This tree is the only choice and now that my eyes may pick it out of the landscape, I'll make a concerted effort to examine any specimens I spy. I heartell, Sam's Club has chosen it for a lot of parking lots...and I swear I've noted that bark somewhere in my neighborhood. I expect I'll choose "Green Vase." Apparently it grows at a faster rate than "Green Village" such that it can reach 30 feet in 10 years. Given that ye olde Ash will likely come down long before that, speed growing is appreciated. There are no wires to deal with at my end of the street, so it can reach full height. My nursery has 2 and 3" calipers and will select the smaller, thanks to the tree forum's advice that smaller is better. I've seen other caveats about pruning and wanted to attach this link to a picture of a green vase that looks like a nice specimen with regards to branching. It looks like the first one has nice open branching. Is this is what I'm looking for? Or should I be looking higher and beware of anything looking too crowded up there? If those are 2" calipers further down the row, I imagine I could see the potential problems for me while they're near my own height. I know it's the nature of this tree to have "upright" branches. Just wondering if an unacceptable angle can be quantified for me....like nothing above 62.5 degrees or something like that. That would be half again closer to the next after 45 degrees. I could eyeball that. It'll probably be apparent, but, what the heck, I'll ask. The nursery is having a 20% off sale now and the nurseryman I spoke to said the prices will continue on down into fall. The 2" are $299. I don't think I can be choosey about price for lack of nurseries around me. And now I just want this decision out of the way. Forgot to ask how many they have. In any event, thanks for all your help! Here is a link that might be useful: Zelkova, Green Vase

rich, I'm in your area- hoptown. If you're not anal-retentive about kids eating 'wild' berries or purple stains, it'd be hard to beat a GOOD mulberry, like 'Illinois Everbearing'. Rapid growth, good branch structure for climbing - with minimal pruning to foster such - and pretty nice shade. But - they will produce large amounts of TASTY, staining fruits. Don't be surprised if the daughter comes in with hands & lips stained purple during fruiting season. My wife had pleasant childhood memories of climbing up into the big mulberry in her yard, eating berries along with the birds, so mulberries were some of the first trees we planted when we moved here - and our kids did enjoy the berries, though none were all that keen on climbing - other than to shake out more berries to eat. I'm an oak enthusiast at heart, but for the traits you listed, mulberry - either M.rubra or a hybrid like IE - not M.alba! - would be hard to beat.

I have a Golden Vase Zelkova that is growing like mad since planting several years ago. It has done extremely well in spite of the drought. Will try and take pictures tomorrow if possible. The main downside to the tree is that as the plant matures, it does throw seeds that can germinate in the strangest of places. Here is a quasi-picture of it from 2006! It's the tree in the middle island in the picture. Another quasi-shot from earlier this year.