I have Bakeri (x5), Hoopsi and Baby Blue (x2) ... and have seen some very nice Bizon Blue in person. All have excellent blue in the spring. Hoopsi is stunning, steel-grey/blue (not just tips, and retains them year round!). My Bakeri seem to be growing a bit faster (vs. Hoopsi) and also started smaller. They are stunning in spring, but only the tips (new growth) are that pure blue. The Bakeri have more 'character' (iregular shape, funky, somewhat narrow). I would go with Hoopsi, then Bakeri, then Bizon Blue. I don't consider fat albert in the same class as these others. Baby blue is also nice, but is the slowest growing of them all and technically a drawf growth rate. Personally, I'd like a Abies concolor 'Candicans' and those are nice trees. Not sure which would grow best in your soil and climate.

Have you thought about a yucca plant. They tolerate my heavy clay soil here and are very drought tolerant and maybe better suited to your climate than mine. They flower every once in awhile and send a gorgeous tall plume with white petals. Flora

Your crabapples sound really nice, almondstriations; I agree that multi-stem trees are often more interesting in shape. I actually really do like my Hawthorn. Though I am not sure of the cultivar name, I believe it is a Crimson Cloud - it has red flowers with white centers, lovely in bloom, nice foliage, with interesting, almost contorted branches. It is resistant to many of the diseases that plague hawthorns and it doesn't have thorns. I like it very much as a specimen tree; I seem to prefer having specimen trees as opposed to groups of the same tree. The Autumn Blaze maple gets way too big, though maybe it wouldn't get as large here. I am also leery of planting anything that has the silver maple in its parentage - I already deal with the fast growing and therefore weak-limbed/brittle white poplar so really don't want to experience this with another tree. Thank you for the suggestion though, marktrot1, and I am glad that you are enjoying it in your garden and that it grows well for you I went last week to pick up a Tartarian Maple as it seemed like just the thing, but the nursery I went to only had a larger sized tree, really too big for me to plant as well as costing more than I wanted to pay. Instead, I came home with a Picea pungens 'Sesters Dwarf' to plant where the oak tree was, as well as a Picea omorika 'Minima' and a Berbiris thunbergii 'Golden Torch' to plant elsewhere in my front yard. All slow growing, dwarf plants, nothing like the oak I planted, no red fall colour (I think the barberry is supposed to get pinkish in the fall, lol) but I love conifers, which have year round interest (IMHO,) and the lovely golden color of the barberry was very appealing to me. All three plants will fit well into my small front yard. Hopefully they will survive and be happy here.... Thanks again to everyone who has made suggestions. I have an area in my back yard which might be perfect for some of the trees mentioned; they will have plenty of room to grow there, too. Holly

I'm posting a few more different layouts. One of them is what sujafr suggested with starting with the plain baluster instead of the ornate one. The only problem with this is that the third step is not as wide as the other two because of a newel post which is part of it. One thing that I need to point out is that I have a L shaped staircase that starts with 3 steps with a flat landing, then 10 more steps. The entire staircase is open on the whole side.The online software that I used to show the various baluster layouts only show the 3 stairs. The pattern will repeat itself on the other 10 steps. Here's the other layouts. Keep the comments and suggestions coming. I do appreciate them.