Pinetree30: You suggest that late setting winter buds, or growth extensions of the original shoots that continue for longer, are more likely to have frost kill the terminal bud. Well, that doesnt fit with any observations I have made. In fact, the growth of the Norway spruce shoots on my timberland in the mountains of western MD continues, most years, into August, and I see less terminal bud failure there than I see here in Winchester, VA, where the shoot extension of Norway spruce is generally finished by early July. And the winters are much, much more harsh in the MD mountains, with temps of 15 below happening fairly often, and an all time low of minus 40 has been recorded. The growth of the terminal shoots in Western MD is generally somewhat more than I generally see in Winchester. In addition, the spruce that had the free growth last year--about a dozen had substantial free growth that began after the initial shoot elongated--set their winter buds much later than the other spruces that simply elongated their original shoots in the usual manner. One, the one that had total growth of close to four feet, did not stop that growth and set any visible terminal but until early September. All the spruce that had the free growth and set winter buds late, had their terminal buds grow just fine this year, and the extent of the growth was about the same as the other young Norway spruce. And as for the spruce pictured in this topic here. I have seen this literally hundreds of times--spruce tops that look exactly like this. At about this time of year, depending on the location, one or more of these will start to turn upward. Usually more than one will begin to turn upward, but one will usually be clearly more erect and by this time in another year, will be a clearly dominant leader. Anderson: Please take a picture or two in a few weeks and post so we can all see them. At that time there will be one or more of the side shoots more or less erect, but it will still have a curve in it. Then take another picture at the end of September, or later. At this point it should be even more erect and have less curve. Finally, after the shoots have elongated next year--say by the middle of August--take another picture for us. At that point the new leader should be nearly "ramrod straight." We have had discussions about Norway spruce re-establishing a lost leader several times, but usually not with pictures like you have given us, and never with any follow-up pictures. Oh, pinetree: You say I "attribute" the long shoots to free growth. I posted a topic about this a few months ago--and yes, finally, with pictures. I will re-post in that topic in a month or two, with a new picture or two, and you can see them and judge for yourself what was happening--whether it looks to you like free growth or not. If the pictures I have posted are not enough, I actually took quite a few and can post some more from last year. But most of the long shoots I see on Norway spruce--those of 30 to 36 inches or more--are not the result of free growth. I have observed occasional free growth for years, but it is rather unusual. This last year those I observed in my planted spruce here in Winchester were the nmost "dramatic" I have seen. But the 12 or so that had substantial free growth--averaging about 10 inches or so per tree, were out of about 350 I have planted here. There were a number of others that had additional small extra shoots, both on the leader and on side branches, but I have not counted those. --spruce

What I see on grafted stock (coniferous and deciduous) at outlets here is corkscrew roots at the base of the stem (often visible above the top of the potting soil) dating from when root-stocks were left sitting in bands or other small containers too long before being grafted upon. Lining these grafts out in a field later will have no effect on this unless the roots are pulled open and kept open at planting. Likewise roots having been made out into larger containers later does not mean there is not badly deformed roots back inside, near the trunk, dating from when the stock was kept under-potted. Unless you have been bare-rooting at planting it seems you haven't really been in a position to know for sure the complete situation with each specimen. I have thrown out expensive grafted conifers form Oregon nurseries because I have found at planting the roots were so bad I really couldn't see how a secure (well-rooted and wind-firm/snow-tolerant) and persisting specimen was going to be possible - and it never occurred to me to attempt to take them back to the garden center, point out they were defective merchandise and ask for a credit. Probably no improvement in what is clearly widespread bad practice is going to occur unless and until numbers of retail customers start doing just that. In the meantime woody ornamental plants are in a down cycle, with fewer people buying them in the first place. This post was edited by bboy on Fri, Jan 9, 15 at 15:03

I don’t know why photos are randomly sideways. My apologies. This photo has a large Norway spruce on the left edge and white pines in the back. Though the pines look to be at the edge of woods, they are in a narrow strip between the field and the river, and so get good sun morning and afternoon.. Notice how the pines have limbed themselves up, but the spruce has a real grace with the branches all the way to the ground. Sorry I am not home or I would have a better photo for you.

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions and input. Sorry for my slow follow up. I've been thinking about this question over the past few weeks. It's nice to have so many great choices, but that also made it hard to decide! Fortunately, I have a big yard, so I don't have to choose just one. Some of the things I already have are apples (regular and crab), eastern white cedar (not true cedar, though), norway spruce, many oaks and maples, birch, ash, dogwood, bloodgood japanese maple, staghorn sumac, two redbuds that I just planted. There are many spots I can put smaller ornamental trees, and I am adding many of the suggestions here to my list, including serviceberry, stewartia, magnolia and silverbell. I also like the chokecherry for its contrasting foliage color. As for the original spot, based on some of the comments here I decided against the catalpa. So, my final top two candidates were black gum and either yellow or 'autumn splendor' buckeye. Then a couple of weeks ago I went to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. First of all, thank you maackia for that suggestion - the place is truly fantastic. Let me add my recommendation to anyone living in or visiting the area to go check it out. So beautiful, and so much garden inspiration. I'll be going again soon and regularly. I saw the metasequoias, and they are wonderful. Though I love them, they're just not what I had in mind for the particular spot I originally asked about, where I think a tree with a spreading canopy will work better. I am still going to work on finding another spot for a metasequoia in the yard. If we end up taking out the existing damaged norway spruce, it would be a great replacement. But while at the Botanical Gardens, I found the perfect solution. On a back hillside there is a planting of sourwood. I'd read about these trees but never seen one in person. They are so beautiful - delicate and graceful but also (eventually) large enough to have big-tree presence (I know it's a slow grower so will take a while to get there). Plus, multiple seasons of interest with the summer flowers and great fall color. They check all the boxes. Then, in a great stroke of luck, I found one at a garden center this weekend. It's about 7-8 ft, but the guy said they had come in undersized (were supposed to be 2" caliper but only 1.5) and hadn't sold, so he let me have it for 50 BUCKS!!!!!! I've read they can be kind of hard to establish, but for $50, I think it's worth the risk. I'm so excited about this beautiful tree and I hope it does well. Sorry for the epic post, but I thought all the folks who generously shared their thoughts might like to hear how it worked out in the end. Wish me luck with the sourwood! Thanks again for all the great ideas! I'll try to come back and post pictures once I have some of these things in the ground.