Thanks Don for sharing your insight and experience with me. I am prepared to prune like it is going out of style. My back yard is not very challenging to me right now with not much to do in it vegetatively. Even my garden I expanded this year had been very maintenance-free. I think I only pulled half a dozen weeds out since April. I've worked on creating a compact garden and a berry bed in the inside-side of the fence. My back yard is small and only extends about 24' back from the corner of the house. I fenced most of it in. I left some space on the outside of the east side where these trees are going. The soil is especially murderous on that side of the yard. I suspect when this house was constructed a little less than 3 years ago that the access road for the neighborhood construction was through that area. I notice contractor people here like to spread heaps of plentiful limestone rocks around construction sites for their machinery/keep mud down. It gets compacted and pressed down with that heavy equipment as houses are built. Then after a house is built it appears topsoil is added on top for sod, but it is never spread evenly. This explains why the west side of the yard is much easier to put shovel in than the east side. All my neighbors complain about their yards being the same way. Here's an example of what happened to all the rocks dug up in my back yard: I dug the final hole for that Mcintosh this evening and the soil was considerably easier to dig in. I had watered the spot where I wanted the tree a couple times this week and notice before doing that.. that the grass was more lush there. I can visually see where I will have a chore digging and where it will be relatively easy with not nearly as much shovel aerobics to pry out boulders and stones 'glued' into the ground. I hope these trees, as close as they are grow like wildfire because I want more privacy in my little yard. Notice in my picture the houses at the top of the picture... There's always people staring down at my wife and I from those balconies/roadway. We'd much rather they stare at fruit trees. I hope they grow 20' tall. ;) I will be sure to let you know how my Mcintosh grows (or dies). Last winter it was always colder on that side of the house. The path between the houses adjacent to mine act as a wind shaft to convect cold air along that area. Maybe that will be beneficial to the Mcintosh. Time will tell I guess. I will plant the Mcintosh probably tomorrow. I want to mix in some of that fertilized tree/shrub mix with our limely clay soil as I had for the two other trees. I could cram one more tree along the fence, but I have a white pine in the inside that should complete the blocked view (someday). I say I don't mind pruning now, but I may be saying different in 3-5 years eh? :)

I don't know about spraying on a Japanese Maple, at least not in my area(Eastern Kansas, Western Missouri). It might depend on what part of the country you are in and what potential pests are out there you might be spraying for. I can't think of any that target Japanese Maples off the top of my head, maybe someone else can. Of course my potential values were all based on my area and based on supposedly healthy nursery stock, not trees being moved from some other private property to another. I did mention that the lace leafed cultivars are far more expensive than the non-lace leafed cultivars. I'd also say that 90% of the red leafed(non-lace leafed) Japanese Maples sold in much of the Eastern 1/2 of the country are indeed 'Bloodgood' or one of it's seedlings, so it and it's seedlings(which of course makes them NOT true 'Bloodgood') by far are the most widespread red leafed cultivar you will find in much of the country. I mentioned Japanese Maple nuts/aficionados/enthusiasts know probably hundreds of cultivars and can tell the minute differences between them all and could probably give a more informed opinion of the true cultivar of the tree in question, like bboy did. Many of them look so similar to me that they just kind of all merge into the same thing.

Tom, I appreciate all of the education on proper tree planting depth from you and others on this forum. After reading up on proper planting techniques (especially with regard to the planting depth), it has led me to examine all of the trees in my yard (including those trees that I planted and those that were "professionally planted". Almost all of the trees were planted too deep. In removing the soil to locate the root flare, I found a few trees that also had early onset girdling roots. I didn't mean to imply that all of the experts on this forum blame tree problems entirely on plant depth, but it seems to be one of the first things that is pointed out whenever anyone posts a picture of their troubled tree. I guess this just shows what a huge problem this is in the industry, and can be found in most trees planted from container or B&B. This topic has made me aware of how important proper planting depth is and I now insist on either planting the trees myself and setting the hole depth based on the root flare, and trying to find smaller trees that have less structural issues. I have attached a picture of a crimson king maple that was planted about 8 years ago. I had it professionally planted and a few years after that it was showing signs of stress. I had a certified arborist take a look at it and he suggested I look for stem girdling roots and correct them if they were present. I had to dig down very deep to locate them, but I did find some issues and was able to take care of them. This tree was about 8 inches too deep, and seems to be doing well today. (There is actually very little mulch in this picture, but the area around the trunk is dug out pretty deep.) It lost some adventitious roots in the process but hung in there!

'Scorch' (leaf burn) has seldom killed any tree and olives are particularly well suited to CA's drought, so I'd have issues with the diagnosis you have received. Pruning, even heavy pruning (and olives are routinely pruned hard), would not make the tree any less drought tolerant nor would it necessarily encourage leaf scorch. I'd be inclined to have the tree evaluated by a certified arborist that knows his stuff or take clear photos and samples to your local extension service office for an accurate diagnosis before leaping to any other conclusions. If the tree is in fact dying, replanting with another olive in the same location is dependent on what the tree is dying from.....some pathogens remain present and active in the soil indefinitely (like armillaria or verticillium wilt, to both of which olives are susceptible) and replanting in the exact location with the same or another susceptible species is not advised. The description of the symptoms could indicate that one or the other of these may be at cause but that would need to be confirmed by a plant pathologist or someone else skilled in these matters. Bottom line is you must get the problem correctly identified before you can make any replanting decisions.