H-man: maybe Heritage isn't a good choice for "mowing" to the ground. I've been cutting mine to the ground for 5 years. The bed has been meticulously cared for; nonetheless, they have been declining in sucker production for the last 2 - 3 years starting just about the time the bed was filled out. The bed has fewer and fewer canes shooting up from the ground each Spring. Maybe they don't like the KS summers. I'll leave the canes from this year cut down to 10" this year and next to see if they respond with more shoots. But then again they might just get dug up and replaced w/something else. I hope to get back to you this weekend on the CAR topic with some thoughtful responses. If the quail and pheasant hunting are good though, I may not. Michael

well ... i never lived in GA.. but arent you a little early ... up here.. oak are one of the last to leaf out ... and all you can exercise is patience .... you have scratched once.. good enough ... no matter how many times you want to check .... i would hesitate to keep doing it repeatedly .... leaf out is a function of soil temps.. at root depth .. not air temps... so even if it has been warmish for you .... if you bury your head 3 or 4 feet into the ground [and dont forget your mulch is keeping the soil cool longer] .. you will find.. most likely.. little or no soil warming to trigger root growth.. which will trigger leaf out ... i think the plant needs to start pumping water up into the tree ... to start plumping the buds to expand and break .... i dont know if that is science.. or just my way of thinking about it all ... i am not impressed with small branches being dead ... perhaps they were sacrificed due to the transplanting of incredibly large specimens .... regardless .. what will be.. will be .. and all you have ... right now .. is time to wait to see what the result is ... it is also not uncommon up here in z5 .. for last years transplants to delay leaf out even longer .... simply based on the transplant .... i dont see why that would be different for you ... maybe dan knows .... good luck ken PS: shade will increase the amount of time it takes .. for the soil to warm ... so expect those trees to be behind the curve ... pps: my bigger worry.. up here in the great frozen north.. more than initial bud break.. would be a heavy frost or freeze after the leaves appear .... if there was loss of the first set of leaves.. on a tree with basically no roots [comparatively speaking] .. there just might not be the reserve of stored energy to releaf ... and then you will have problems .... but right now .... your only problem .. is PROBABLY .. your anxiety ...

I'm no expert on this, but I think I would leave it. It's gone pretty far, and as said above, would probable do the same thing all over again. There is a larger Autumn Blaze in front of where I work that is about a 12" trunk, that does not have the standard central leader, and is branched repeatedly where several leaders originate from one location in kind of a disc shaped arrangement. Then in late Jan we had the worse ice storm at the location I have seen, and about the worst on record. Guess what, the Autumn Blaze lost 2-4 relatively minor branches not more than a couple inches thick, and that was all. This with some formerly large probable 30 inch diameter sugar maples reduced to mostly trunks. Now I'm sure, the tree not being nearly as large as the sugar maples made a difference, but still it's a mature tree that came through the WORST ice storm essentially unscathed. On a side note, I am currently working on one in my yard, that was just plain screwed up. Partly my fault, partly not. In fact it was a tree that I gave up for dead, as I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. Finally I remembered when we bought it that the nursery worked had sprayed "wilt proof" on it, for the ride home. Leaves got thick, and slowly disintegrated, and then died. Grew a few more back, but same think leaves, and very short internodes. Finally figured out it was probable 2,4 D herbicide damage, and that it had not been sprayed with wilt-proof at all. Last spring I noticed that buds set before I bought the tree were growing (all be it slowly), while the buds set afterward were not behaving normally. Little more research, and 2,4 D concentrates in the apical meristem (the growing points), and so could have concentrated in the buds set AFTER I bought the tree. So out come the pruners, cutting all the buds and branch ends set after I bought the tree. Low and behold the tree springs to life, and grows well till mid-summer. Added up to about 2.5' on some branches. Even got some decent russet orange-red fall color from it. So now the tree is still lopsided, still has a kind of crooked central leader that leans to one side, but it is on the road to recover, and I will be able to turn it into a very nice tree. This all is to say, that these trees are VERY TOUGH, and that it may very well turn out better than you expect. Also these trees seem to be more resistant to ice damage than many would give them credit for. Arktrees

Considering you have so many sprouts from below the the first branch set, you can select ANY of the sprouts from the trunk and make that into your new tree. I have had two instances with the same tree of a similar but different situation: I have a red/silver cross (Acer x freemanii) that I dug as a 6" seedling from my grandmother's garden. Planted it into the ground in late October of 2009 to over-winter it safely. A rabbit came during that winter and ate the stem to 1" from the ground. Determined as I was, I dug it up, potted it up and let it sprout last spring. I nubbed off every sprout but the one closest to the cut end, and let that sprout shoot up for the duration of summer 2010. It grew almost to 3' tall. In December 2010, after the little tree had turned the most amazing shades of hot red, we had a 4 day unprecedented snow fall (snow squalls, lake effect snow) the likes of which snapped the stem to 6" from the ground (in a new pot, in the ground again for the winter). As soon as the ground was thawed in March, I lifted the pot and kept it on the deck/patio. Again, the stem was enthusiastic about leafing out, and all the dormant buds were activated. I nubbed them away, only keeping the highest one on the stem. It has grown nearly 2' in the past 6 weeks. The wound has healed over completely and the stem is growing like a weed. Moral of the story: I'm determined to grow this silly weed of a hybrid. Moral 2 of the story: Even when you lose the top of a tree for an uncontrollable reason (weather, animals, etc) you can still succeed. Pick a vigorous stem and cut away all others. This stem will become the new trunk and will grow a considerable amount this summer. Remove the entire dead top to about half an inch from the shoot you will keep. The removal of all others will force all the root energy into one stem. It will hopefully prepare for winter and drop its leaves in October. Your one stem will branch profusely in the spring next year. It will look a little funny (well, a lot funny) but you won't have thrown away a perfectly good plant.