Oh Josh! Would you believe I was scared to death to cut off that much? Lolololol. Now I have Al suggesting that I go even further down the road? Now that's chopped!lol Ok, first off I am happy to report that the TWO, yes, two plants are doing well thus far! They are responding very well. In fact, the mix fell right away from the roots of yours Josh. You sent that plant to me in a great mix and which in turn I used the very same mix to repot! It's a good thing we all use the same mixes. I never have a problem repotting a plant from you pal. Blake, I think I answered your question in there somewhere:-) Al, now, that is quite the picture and would you believe it still took me a couple of days to completely understand this? lol. Yes, I knew you would. Anyhow, I must say if I can get just ONE plant to look as good as your Bonsai, I would be thrilled. I really appreciate your guidence along with Josh and others. I can't really envision what that 'hornbeam' is going to look like, but I trust you. I never even heard of a 'hornbeam'! Guess I'll have to google that one. Now that mullberry bush is to die for. GREAT work! Have you ever posted it with leaves? It must be beautiful. Would you beleive I saw the workers at the Bonsai shop hacking their trees way back in the fall, and I just about died? It was very traumatic for me to see what they were doing to what I thought were beautiful trees as was, but then they laughed at me when I expressed this. lol I do have what would be a beautiful huge sweet maple tree that turns brillaint colors come the fall that I have been growing in a 3 gallon container for about 3 years now. Let's just say that if I planted inground, it would be a giant. Right now it's only about 6 feet high. What to do? I will snap a pic of it this weekend, ok? Mike

The storm drain is finally fixed. The guy who's auger got stuck called last week. He said couldn't wait for our other guy to retrieve his auger and was coming out the next day to dig it out. We told him he could only do this on three conditions. 1) If he was willing to charge us the same price as the other guy we were waiting for. 2) Would either hand dig the hole or use a mini excavator so as not to disturb the tree roots. 3) I wanted this in writing BEFORE he started digging. He agreed to all. We were there the entire time. We even had a guy from another plumbing company come out earlier in the day and give us a quote. Their quote was twice what we were paying for this guy to be able to get his equipment back and finish the job. I have to say he did a good job. He was very careful digging. Instead of driving the gravel truck onto our lawn to unload the 2 tons of gravel that were needed to fill the hole, he used a wheelbarrow to do this by hand. When he was finished all that was left was a pile of dirt about a calf high, 6' long/2' wide. Looks like a grave! ;) In any case, I'm glad its over and no longer have to worry about my trees being killed. Much thanks to those who offered their advice/support during this time.

Hi Laura, Maples in general have delicate leaves that can burn with the summer heat, drying winds, over fertilization, over or underwatering, and salt buildup in the soil. Sometimes even when you do everything properly you will still get leaf burn. Usually though the second flush of leaves are much hardier. Such is the case with my red seedling. The leaves seem tougher this year than I remember last year. It's certainly getting more sun in its new location than last year and it hasn't burned yet. The maples with dissected leaves with the long, thin lobes and double serrations tend to be more delicate than the amoenum and palmatum types and burn more easily. In your case it seems like a combination of summer heat and underwatering. What were the temps like when you first planted a month ago? And what are the temps now? This will give you a good gauge as to watering frequency. I use local temps to *generally* gauge how often I need to water my potted maples. For instance, in the winter when temps are in the low 60s once every seven days is sufficient. Upper 60s I may step it up to every 5-6 days, lower 70s every 4-6 days, upper 70s every 3-4 days, lower 80s every 2-3 days, upper 80s to lower 90s every other day. When the temps at my new place reach the upper 90s and lower 100s I may need to water every day or perhaps even twice a day on some of the potted maples. I would say since it is getting hotter best to stick with twice a week waterings unless the soil is too wet. You're right in that the tree needs less water as there are no leaves to transpire moisture. But remember that even though the tree has no leaves it still has roots that need to stay sufficiently moist and still supply nutrients to the branches and buds. Don't fertilize at this point. I'd recommend applying kelp extract as a soil soak according to the package label directions till fall sets in in your area. Don't worry if the tree doesn't put out new leaves for the remainder of the year. As long as the branches and buds are okay. Then, next spring when the temps starts to rise after the last frost and before bud break start applying a low nitrogen fertilizer with numbers like 1-5-5 along with the kelp extract according to the directions for a soil soak. Layne

All - a quick update. I was able to find someone to work with Manor View - they had 12 Fall Fiestas, and we just reserved 10 of them in the 2" caliper size. They'll stay happy at the nursery until we have them planted in October :-) :-). For anyone else who is looking for them, I did end up finding 2 other sources in the Maryland area: Kingsdene Nursery would have been able to order them for me (they would have been potted, as opposed to the trees from Manor View that are in burlap, but I believe they were also 2" caliper). Moon Nurseries was the other source, but their trees were more in the 3-5" caliper size. Thank you all again for your help - can't wait to see these beautiful trees planted, and to enjoy them for years to come!