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.

For some trees in their first year in the ground always look bad but comes back looking much better next year (small size trees). Also, planting time does make a huge difference during the first year. Planting in fall/winter will give you much better looking tree compared to spring planting. Sometimes the tap water does funky stuff to the leaves when watered so if you use sprinkler system for the lawn, it's probably why. If you're worried about watering too much, look at the year of 2007 when Texas got a lot of rainfall. That happened to be such awesome year for tree growth. Must be something in the rainwater, eh? As far as getting rid of grass, I use round up to kill them then mulch over dead grass. I occasionally us RU whenever grass pops through the mulch. Annoying but that's Bermuda grass for you. It'd take nuclear weapon to get rid of it entirely. Throw in Montezuma Cypress... Pretty cool tree to have that will turn rustic red in the middle of the winter. Mine grew 4-5 ft in their first year. Shantung Maple 'Skinny Dragon' looks like it grew about 5 ft? Blaine's Dragon about 3-4 ft. Super Dragon got burned off unfortunately. I guess full brunt of afternoon sun was too much for lime green color leaves to handle... Or too much water since all the container trees were around it that needed daily watering in the summer. Who knows?

ERC is certainly expanding its range Westward here in Kansas as well. Many areas are becoming ERC mini-forests, which during my childhood were prairie or open fields. Sugar Maple is shading out Oaks and Hickories here also. The Sugar Maples do seem to prefer moist conditions in sandstone based soils, but also seem to compete well in average moisture areas. It's quite odd to see Oak-Hickory forests made up of Black Jack Oak(Quercus marilandica), Black Oak (Q. velutina) , Post Oak(Q. stellata) and Black Hickory(Carya texana) being taken over by Sugar Maple here. In general most woody species seem to be creeping slightly Westwards here in Kansas. Homo sapiens is indeed changing plant ranges, and we know many Juniperus spp are expanding their range, for numerous reasons; in my mind the major two are ungulate eradication and fire regime changes. Well, this is only partially true. It isn't a new phenomenon. It's been demonstrated quite convincingly that the majority of fires historically here in Kansas(and the entire Central and Southern Great Plains) were man made(Native American started) and these man made fires were responsible for this part of the Great Plains to remain mostly Plains and not remain forested or at least shrubland. So, before Native Americans came to the Central part of North America, the Plains was much smaller and more forested. Thus American Indians reduced the native range of many woody plants through fire. What's happening now is a reversion back to how things were before all these man made fires were being set. Although the climate is different today (Ice Age(then) vs. inter Ice Age(now)) and so the species makeup of the woody plants is a bit different, with some colder climate plants being eliminated by natural global warming coming out of the last Ice Age and some warmer climate species now here that were previously absent from the area. Also, the elimination of any fire, man-made or natural is also allowing for the area to become more thoroughly forested and it to happen a bit quicker. Lastly, as far as invasives, by far the most recent and becoming much more aggressively spreading species would be Callery Pear(Pyrus calleryana, of which 'Bradford' is a popular cultivar). This spring I saw hundreds of plants growing on the edge of woodlands, in roadside ditches, fence lines, and any other unmowed or "natural" area. Mimosa seems to be a bit more prevalent as well, but it's still nowhere near the levels of Callery Pear.

The heat wave has finally subsided here. Temps in low to mid 80's which is normal. I did see 95 for Wednesday of next week but that will be short lived. Still no rain. Less them 1/4 inch of rain since July 12th. Probably lost about 20 conifers with another 5 developing that gray cast. When that happens the plant is dead or close to it. Rebuilding time next spring. I hope the market can sustain providing rare and unusual conifers for the collector. The outlook is not good with the bad economy. Most growers are pulling back and now providing the bread and butter conifers for sale. Right now that is where the money is and you can't blame them. Rare offerings will be at a premium next spring. That's the word that has been channeled to me. If your order up this fall for next spring delivery you stand a good chance of getting most of those. My want list comprised of 12 that I wanted. I will receive 7. My advice...go get them while the getting is good. The market is going in to survival mode. Dave