avocado tree.

some shade, wont get too big, rarely need water,

and this thing has character...

I don't know if I could handle the winter protection.

Whaas,

You need to decide the size, shape and color of the plants you want. In your front tree selections you list Both Wolf Eyes and Empireror 1. One is dark red and the other is almost white and the satomi is Green. I would nix the Pagoda as I find them harder to grow. All plant but the pagoda could be fine depending on the look you want.

In your back yard hill I would go with the Oak, Tulip tree or Yellowwood. One other idea would be a european beech. They are easier to find and there is a large selection of culivars with different leaf shapes and colors.

You have also listed several variegate plants. From my experience the easiest variegate plants to grow are Zelkova Serrata Goshiki, Wolfeyes, Silver king Sweetgum and a tricolor beech. Cornus mas and the pagoda are great when grow right but are hard to grow.

One other plant I would recommend working into your landscape would be a paperbark maple. Great 4 season plant. Acer Japonicum would be Highly recommended also as it is reported to be a little more cold hardy than acer palmatum and has great fall color.

You may also want to ad some conifers for winter interest. If you are interested I would look into Picea Orientalis, Picea Omorika, pinus Parviflora( there are many cultivars) and Korean pine.

David

Thanks for the feedback. I basically pasted the list in here to see if anyone would have a certain passion for a particular plant.

I originally wanted an A. griseum but was willing to sacrifice the bark quality with more consistent fall color in the A. triflorum. A. griseum has inconsistent fall color in the midwest...evident by the specimans in the Chicago Bontanic Gardens and Morton Arb.

Surprised you mentioned the Cornu mas is tough to grow. How do you mean? I was under the impression this is an easy to grow plant with very little problems...although slow growing.

"A. griseum has inconsistent fall color in the midwest...evident by the specimans in the Chicago Bontanic Gardens and Morton Arb."

A. triflorum is a fine tree, but can't say I understand picking one tree over another based on 7-10 days of fall color. A. griseum (if you can grow it) will provide 52 weeks of seasonal interest. The bark is superb and superior to A. triflorum.

True...in regards to color, can't argue there.

But it depends on how you value the feature. The bark is always there, day after day, it becomes, lets just say...there.

With fall color its something to look forward to and sometimes you get a little bit of a different show each year.

For me, I'd sacrifice some of the ornamental interest of the bark to get fall color.

With any seed grown tree there will be differences in fall color so unless you see the plant in fall you can't be sure. I have 3 paperbarks and all have very slight differences in fall color but are all good and the bark is great. If you want something with great fall color look at Acer Japonicum. They are my only asian maples that can consistantly compete with our native sugar maple for great fall color.

Cornus mas as a species is fairly easy to grow, the variegated forms I have tried have not been. In my view the species in not very attractive and much more bush like than a tree. Cornus Kousa is a much nice plant in my view.

"it is southwest exposure so it gets tons of sun but its on a slight slope so it will get quite dry"

Cornus kousa and Acer palmatum (or japonicum) probably won't be very happy in an exposed, full sun, dry location.

Acer griseum or triflorum might survive OK if the soil is reasonable. If you're leaning toward one of these, you should also consider the hybrid griseum x nikoense - it's not as slow growing as straight griseum and triflorum, and its mature size is a bit larger.

Cornus mas and officinalis are relatively tough plants that offer very early spring color. Check out the link for an article on Cornus officinalis

Here is a link that might be useful: Japanese Cornel Dogwood

Pagoda Dogwood will likely struggle in a full sun, dry location.

What is the deal with hybrid griseum x nikoense? Are you just sacrificing some bark quality with vigor?

Basically that's the trade off. The griseum x nikoense hybrid grows faster, but the bark isn't as interesting (it has about the same color as griseum, but doesn't exfoliate as much). It's a question of how long you're willing to wait for the tree to reach 25-35'.

I see no value in going after the hybrid. Both of these species are great trees, so what's the advantage of the hybrid? It seems you're sacrificing a lot to gain very little.

The more I think about it the A. griseum would look darn near gorgeous in this spot...as your coming down the road my neighbors pure white house would be the backdrop.

I'd really have to watch the moisture level since its on a slight slope...I'll probably build up a top layer of compost on the slope side.

Off topic, I know. You are doing a beautiful job of keeping this forum active. Wish you lived in VA where that forum is inactive. Keep it up. Hank