I think lou and scotjute are both correct. A wide swath of the Live Oaks growing in East-Central Texas are intermediate between Quercus virginiana and Q. fusiformis. Once you get West of I-45 it becomes more and more pure Q. fusiformis. The native Live Oaks from the DFW area down to Waco are mostly Q. fusiformis with little influence(not zero influence though) of Q. virginiana evident in my opinion. Many of the nursery propagated Live Oaks in Texas are propagated from local Oaks and are hence somewhat intermediate just like the native trees, while some are imported in from growers further East and are hence mostly pure Q. virginiana as well as some of the named cultivars being propagated. While some are from growers further West and are hence Q. fusiformis. Q. fusiformis is much more drought and cold tolerant than Q. virginiana and should be readily available locally, especially from nurseries which propagate many of their own trees since it's native to the San Angelo area. If my calculations are correct for the scale of the placement of the Bur Oaks out front, I don't think they're too close to the house. Sure in time they will become large enough to shade much of the area, but shade in San Angelo in the summer time doesn't sound too bad to me and might help out with the A/C bills quite a bit. They are very durable, strong wooded, long lived trees(some have been documented of being older than 400 years old) that shouldn't have any problems for about 200 years or so. I also agree that the White cultivar of Oklahoma Redbud Cercis reniformis 'Texas White' is a good choice. Sure it won't live for a long time(for trees), but 20 to 30 years wouldn't be unexpected.

Shumard certainly does great around here in DFW. For a while, it used to be a big problem with the seed source being from the east that can't grow in alkaline soil. I was a victim of it. I know now what to look for. I saw all of those trees at the nurseries lately and it seemed that they have fixed that problem. How prone are they to oak wilt? I don't know. I see great big red oak trees around here so I wouldn't call it a problem yet but it may have more to do with how you treat the trees. Organically cared for, properly watered, etc might do better than heavily dependent on chemicals, poor water management, etc. Chinkapin oak is a great oak with ugly fall color. I don't know about Lacy Oak mainly because of super slow growth based on my observation at my neighbor down the street. Perhaps poor maintenance or badly girdled? After several years, I don't think it even topped total growth amount of a foot. I had Shantung maple that was the same size of that tree 3 years ago is much bigger now. Mexican white oak (alternative evergreen oak to live oak for oak wilt resistant in central Texas), Canby oak (evergreen red oak, bald cypress (central Texas source, not eastern if you can find one ), Montezuma cypress (more evergreen cousin of bald cypress)are others for you to try out. What kind of soil do you have?

bumpety bump!

The biggest problem here is that none of them have started to flower til the end of August and I don't think they will have enough time to set seed. What we did was dig 2 long trenches in the garden and sank the pots into them. Then we will mulch them as soon as the ground freezes, which probably won't be much longer since nights here are already in the single digits. I did bring one of each into the sunroom to overwinter. I will wait and see what overwinters in the garden - hopefully I will have good luck. Thanks to everyone for there help. Marg