Just thought I would add my 2 cents worth. I really like Compact Oregon Grape Holly. Flora_uk makes it sound boring, and most likely in wonderful garden areas like the UK and the Pacific Nortwest it is a boring, filler-type plant. Choices are more limited in the Old South, and the Hybrid Mahonia 'Charity' either doesn't like it here, or more likely, just hasn't caught on yet here. Landscape contractors are amazingly "stuck in the mud". By that I mean stuck in their old ways, and reticent to try anything new, and they drive availabilty around here. I think they have driven down availabilty of Compact Oregon Grape Holly here too. Its foliage is beautiful to me. The birds enjoy the fruit, but it is pretty while it lasts. Its major downfall, IMO, is that it should be cut back hard after the fruit is gone, to keep it from getting leggy and mangled-looking. 'Compacta' addresses that downfall, and thus is much better than plain Mahonia aquifolium, but is still not immune to mangled twisted legginess. Therefore I think ignorance as to how to prune it has resulted in some lack of popularity here. Not in Oklahoma, Katrina1, but here in Georgia, again IMO, the soil is a little too acid, yes I said acid, and Compact Oregon Grape Holly would do better with a little lime to tone that down. Just my opinion; the best beds I have seen of it are in more alkaline soils. Right now Georgia and the Southeast are in the worst drought I have ever seen, and Compact Oregon Grape Holly is just the type of plant we should be looking at using because, once established, you can turn off the irrigation to it during regular Georgia weather. One more thing, the warmer and more coastal-plain that you go from the Fall Line cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, and Birmingham, the more you should try Mahonia pinnata, the California Grape Holly. It is quite tough, and heat-tolerant, and almost as pretty. But alas, nigh-on impossible to find in a nursery. So bottom-line, Katrina1, if your site is shaded by a maple as you say, I think you made a good choice for Oklahoma.

I don,t think we live close,otherwise you could have many suckers from me. I find in general everything in the plant world has gone up. ladybug6a

You might want to try mail order. I ordered a half dozen Mahonia aquifolium from Burnt Ridge Nursery (Onalaska, WA) a few years ago. They were about 2-2.5' tall and were about $6 each. They ship bareroot, which saves on shipping costs but is not that great for the plant. Mine took a while to get over the transplant shock, but are doing fine now. The stock quality of my order was decent.

This is kind of hard to do. It greatly depends on where in Oregon you are. Oregon has so many different climates it's insane. There are beaches, mountains, valleys, deserts, forests, and everything in between. Not to mention the tiny banana belts. I live in Molalla which is a town twenty minutes from every other city (Woodburn, Canby, Salem, Colton etc.) and during the winter everyone else gets snow and we get little to none. Climate-wise I personally wouldn't live anywhere else, besides countries like Scotland, which has a climate very similar to Oregon. When it comes to the people I'd say for the most part everyone is extremely friendly. There are definitely a bunch of hippy people but I love being environmentally conscious so I love that most others here keep all of the nature that Oregon is known for relatively clean. And as for me, I like living in my "small, economically-distressed rural town." Sure, in Oregon the cost of living is higher, but there are definitely ways around spending a bunch of money, especially with the abundance of farmer's markets and small town prices. That's another reason I love living in a small town, the store and shop owners actually work in their stores and are so friendly they'll dish out discounts just because they want to. I think that's one of the main reasons I love living here. The people really are, for the most part, very cool and kind. Also if you have land, like a lot of Oregonians, you won't have to pay for water or garbage since you'll have a well and can burn and compost. Of course, being a native, I have to tell you that you have to be extremely careful about what you burn and when and so on and so forth, but it's worth mentioning. And since you're on a gardening website I'm assuming you might be planning on growing some of your own food and herbs, and that will cut down greatly on cost. Also, Costco and Walmart are musts. It may not be fashionable to shop at bargain stores, but it sure saves you a lot of money!