TreeGuy, I love the map. The maple is located in front of the house more towards the southeast end but fans all the way over to the northeast side. In height, it towers over our house which is a two story on top of a slight hill. It is definitely cooler up front with the Maple tree. Lots of shade - our grass hardly grows, but enough sunlight for a tree in that particular spot. Just wondering if I'm wise to park the birch directly in front of the maple. I have no where else to put it. I suppose my concern with this isn't so much the sunlight, but more with the fact that the birch will essentially be growing up into the canopy of the Maple, eventually. I'm wondering if the city will let me hire a tree service to trim the Maple back somewhat. I don't know if that's feasible, necessary, or even worthwhile. I just don't want to spend $500 just to have it die on me a few years later. Will the birch tree compensate for lack of overhead "space" by leaning toward the sunlight? Only problem is that it will lean towards our driveway then.

Hows the soil? Is it dry, average, or kinda wet? Also does the area get full sun, or does it get some shade?

LOL!! Brandon, I read that statement with exactly the same thought: "Gro low sumac is the most popular choice." ......sez who?? And why would one necessarily want the same approach as everyone else? There are literally hundreds of low growing, ground hugging choices for this situation if one wanted to cover the ground but it is not a requirement for river birch or any other tree. Mulch works perfectly fine if root protection is your intent. And any perennial that needs periodic lifting and dividing is not a good choice for underplanting larger trees. The root disruption is potentially quite damaging to the trees and the longer one waits before any necessary dividing, the harder it is to accomplish and with a higher degree of disruption.

I'm a Japanese maple guy and I could give a little advice on them. I'll first give you a basic list of common A. Palmatum trees that are found in the southeast. Bloodgood, Boskoop Glory, Burgandy Lace, Butterfly, Crimson Queen, Garnet, Indaba Shidare, Red Dragon, Seiryu, Viridis, Emperor One, Oshio Beni, Sango Kaku, Shishigashira, Suminagashi, Trompenburg, and Tamukeyama are common, and all are nice trees. Shin Deshojo, Beni Maiko, Katsura, Beni Shichihenge, Chisio Improved, Filigree, Jiro Shidare, Kiyohime, Koto no ito, Mikawa yatsubusa, Omure yama, Red pygmy, Shaina, Tsukushi gata, and Tsuma gaki are some of my personal favorites that should be fine in the southeast, but are likely a bit harder to find. Aka shigitatsu sawa, Ariadne, Peaches and Cream, Ukigumo, Shigitatsu sawa, and baby lace are nice trees...but I'm not sure how well they do in the heat and humidity (yet). A. Japonicum 'Acontifolium' and 'Green Cascade' are also great trees that do well. A. shirasawanum 'Aureum' and 'Autumn Moon' seem to do fine here as well.