Sorry, have not had time to take or post pics, The day the work I described above was being done, I spent the majority of the day taking out and killing the stumps on some weed shrubs, vines and a tree which were rooted beneath and growing through and back again amid that backyard, chainlength fence. The hole clean-up took me a while, because the chainsaw I was using had to be cleaned and adjusted quite freqently during, what should have been a simple Two, at the most, hour job. The next day I spent resting from being out in the heat so long, but did manage to drive all the way into the west side of town at a nursery which had the 17 non-invasive, trees and shrubs I am going to plant for privacy along that now cleaned-out fenceline. Then, today, I worked in the heat again digging holes for 7 of those items, and after taking a few hours to rest and recover from all that work. Now I am about to go over to that house again and dig holes for at least 4 more items, so that only 6 will remain needing to be dug early tomorrow morning. Once I get a hole dug I put one of the potted trees or shrubs in the hole and water it well. I was hoping that digging the holes now would make my job of planting all 17 of those items on Saturday, more feasable. I am planting 6 Thuja Green Giants in front of and along that fenceline, then I got 5 more of those to plant in a staggered fashion in a row in front of the first. Since the design I created presents a problem of 4 feet on each end of that second row looking too bare, it created the perfect opportunity to plant a Red blooming 'Dynamite' Crape Myrtle slightly in front of each end of that shorter front row of Green Giants. They are all 7 gallon potted size trees and shrubs. Small enough to make the job feasible for me, but still big enough to make it quite a massive undertaking for my current, strength and stamina levels. Then to add more seasonal interest, I am planting 4 Itea 'Little Henry' shrubs, which leaf out in the spring, then bloom with white flowers that look like they might be found on a butterfy bush. After the blooms fade the leaves remain the same shade of green as seen on the GGs new growth. That is followed in the fall with the leaves turning a bright red at about the same time the 'Dynamite' crape myrtles' final bloom flush is going to seed and when those CMs are preparing to go dormant for the winter. These 4 shrubs to be planted in front of the shorter row of Green Giants will remain red then until the first of each late fall/early winter freeze, which is when those 4 shrubs drop their leaves. Hopefully the, previously, nearly empty back yard of that house will become an enjoyable place instead of the ugly almost vacant look it had when it was nearly completely filled with only invasive, Bermuda grass and weeds. Best stop this post now, so I can get 4 more holes dug this evening, as our triple digit heat should be just beginning to show the promise of breaking for the day. I did forget to report that my plans to plant the seventeen items on Saturday, is because of that being the first day when the triple digit heat-up pattern has been forecast to break, and when we are supposed to begin getting days filed with the beginnings of our fall pattern lowering temp changes.

i see no need at all ... there are very few rules which depend on the tree itself.. a tree is a tree ... what changes.. is what your goal is ... e.g.: height as i noted in your other post??? .. we dont really prune.. on a calender.. or for no real reason ... define your goal ... and how and what you prune becomes apparent ... i might pull the mulch back an inch or two from the trunk itself .... in any soil.. other than my 100% mineral sand.. you dont want any retained moisture on bark ... its not made for such... as roots are ... where are you.. that z6b looks so toasty.. it was 3 degrees in MI this morning .... ken

I'm in North Dallas. Home Depot currently has Bloodgood, Crimson Queen & Sango Kaku. Lowe's has the same standards and Osakazuki, Shishigashira, Trompenberg and Kagiri Nashiki.. In fact, just picked up two more Kagiri Nashiki today for half price. Calloway's has Bloodgood, Tamukeyama, Butterfly and Fireglow. Northhaven gardens has a pretty wide selection earlier in the year from Isleli's. Walton's also carries a pretty good selection.

Thanks so much for your replies! The tree that we bought was the single trunk one, but I kept obsessing about the other one. It was really driving my husband crazy, as returning one and getting the other is a huge, big, messy deal. I actually ended up going back to Lowe's to look at the other one again, and on second look I was finally sure that we went with the right one. The info from you guys really helped. Houzi, it was so good to just hear some confirmation that the single trunk has some positives. And rmac78, thanks so much for posting the great photos. Your tree looks perfect there. Really pretty. Another factor is that it's in the side yard in an area where a tree tending to be a little more narrow will be fine--we don't need a ton of low width there. The final deciding factor is that my neighbor just gave us 4 small Japanese maple seedlings from his trees that he's been nurturing, each about a foot tall. (One parent tree looks like a bloodgood, the other has a very slight greenish tint but is very similar. I have 3 really red seedlings and one on the greenish side.) I think eventually with these I'll have trees with the cool trunk pattern I love, and in locations where I'll appreciate it more. Thanks again for your help. I'll be posting soon looking for advice on planting the four new little trees to give them the best chance. Kate