Aggressive... yes. I guess I am. Perhaps I should mention that prior to my current newbie attempts to turn a sterile acre of weed infested grass into a garden with interest and character, my entire experience of growing trees from saplings was with bonsai. I'm absolutely okay with a multi-trunked river birch. My neighbour across the road has a gorgeous specimen, that's about 15 years old. I'm just unsure of whether this little sapling has the potential to be a good multi-trunked tree or if it'd be better off with a single trunk. The tree itself came from Shooting Star in KY and was $12 plus shipping (I got some other trees at the same time). I'm more than happy to take some additional pictures. The tot just went down for his nap and it's nice and clouded out there, so now would probably be a good time. As for planting depth, that's how it arrived. Maybe the nursery repotted it just prior to sending it to me? Certainly the soil it was potted in was very loose. I will concede that maybe some fell off as I was putting in the hole but I didn't pull any soil off it. :) (No offense taken, just explaining what I did.)

Zebrinas, though quite tropical (so not great cold tolerance), but they ARE robust bananas. Maybe it was just mine but have not had such great luck with the 'Ruby Red' species (if you are familiar with that one).

I think it is just that they look 'granular' in the seedling stage. Mine do too.

They just don't look good when they come inside without extra lighting. Some succulents I do think you can grow inside without assistance, but when you're talking Echeveria and Sedums. Goodluck with that one. They will etiolate so fast. Within a week or two. Even if they don't stretch out they just loose their looks. Im starting to accumulate some different succulents that are not cold hardy, but need the light during the winter. So I can't stick them outside because the nights are too cold. Some lights would really help. Also it would be nice to have for my seedlings, and for little cactus that I want to keep actively growing. I would be able to crontrol things a little better. I have a hard time with little tiny succulents because all my plants are outside so things get forgotten or hidden. Being able to keep certain plants all lined up under some lights would help with that. Next year I think I'm going to finally break down and buy some lights for those special needs plants;).