hair, IMHO, assuming your soil is suitable, then you need not fret over which selection of Sugar Maple will do well for you. Your climate is very mild, they are native to the area etc. In short, they are adapted. Might stay away from the far northern seed sourced, but even that is not sure bet, as Fall Fiesta originates from trees planted in Minnesota, and I can assure you they do VERY WELL here far to the south. As for Bonfire, as John stated, they are supposedly the fastest growing Sugar Maple. I found a study at one time where in Huntsville Alabama, Bonfire did very well, growing about twice as fast as many other common selections (this did not include the Caddo selections). Another thing to be aware of with Bonfire, is that their fall color is different. They are much much more red or pink-red, than the usual some form of orange. Gorgeous in their own right, just different. So if you really want the orange, this may not be right for you. The other thing is, I have not seen very many of them locally. But I think you should be able to find them there if you are willing to drive a bit, or special order. See the link below. There are a clump of Sugar Maples on the University of Arkansas Campus that I'm fairly certain are Bonfire from their growth habit, form, and fall color. The link is to one of two pictures that I have posted of one of these trees in peak fall color. Arktrees Here is a link that might be useful:

Roses are good in that they take well to pruning most anytime. Cutting back old and very thick canes will lead to new younger growth. Next spring you may want to consider moving Willie to a spot where he can spread out without blocking any paths. Otherwise keeping him in bounds will be a repeat thing.

Oh shoot -- I can't post pictures now (we're getting ready for our first day of nursery school!), but earlier this year we had miles of crown moulding installed on our crazy angled vaulted curved ceilings (we've got them all!). It looks terrific and, a la Goldilocks, "just right." Our former kitchen designer's cherry-picked GC flat-out told us "no, it's impossible to run crown on vaulted ceilings." This surprised us as we've seen it done in many homes, inc. my parents'! When we responded as such, with pictures, he still said it was impossible and that the pictures were doctored. ??? (Our kitchen designer's refusal to see that we wouldn't / couldn't work with her GC was one of only many reasons we also severed our relationship with her!) The GC with whom we did end up working said "sure you can do it -- it's not so easy, and there's only one of my guys I'll let do it, but of course it's possible." And now I live in the proof! I'll be back later with pictures! But in the meanwhile, I'd love to know the various heights of your vaulted ceiling, because a 4" void (as you propose with the chair) can seem large if you have an 8' height in some areas.

I'm not sure of what is happening. The Salvia regla Jame at the J C Raulston Arboretum is at least eight years old, and is in good garden soil on a level area. I don't think it is in limy soil. The ones I collected the original seed from oin Jame were 30 feet tall and in a claylike soil, if I remember correctly. They were on the canyon side of a roadside. The trunks were made of fairly sturdy wood and had a caliper of about 3 - 4 inches. I suspect they were about 20 + years old. The flowers were definitely much larger than those on the JCR plant.