I thought it would be fun to show what an insufficiently removed bud can turn in to in a stock. I thought I'd removed enough tissue. I guess not! This is very likely what you would see under the soil from most of the suckers you encounter. You can see why it's so important to find it and exercise it from the shank. Simply cutting it is literally pruning it. You know what pruning does...Kim

I'm still here, there just been a wholeeeee lot of life in the way the last couple weeks. bdrusse, This looks pretty normal to me for a first year spring planted maple tree in the open. I see this allot in the area on Red and Sugar maples. It varies some with cultivar (i.e. Legacy seems to adjust a bit better than some of the others), but that is just a gross generalization. We have two Sugar Maples. One Commemoration and the other Fall Fiesta. The Commemoration was planted toward late spring, and eventually developed substantial leaf burn. Eventually I ended up use gallon jugs (about 1.5 gallons of water) with a pin size hole to water slowly every other day through the worst and driest part of summer. That prevented the burn from getting any worse, and the following year, it was fine with normal size leaves. The Fall Fiesta was planted in the fall. The following growing season leaves were near normal size, was some very moderate growth, and no burn occurred during summer. All of which is to say your tree looks about as expected for the circumstances for the amount of time it had to grow roots before leafing. It simply can not support more until there is an increase in root mass. IMHO the burn you are seeing is due to the hot and windy days we have had for the last month, and not enough root mass as of yet. Our Sugar Maples have been frosted almost every year (I live in a cold spot) to as low as 21-22 degrees, and have not suffered apparent freeze damage, so I don't think that was the problem. Just keep taking good care of it, and it should be fine next season. And in way of FYI, don't expect fall color this year, and you probable won't have allot next either. It takes a few years after planting for them to develop something like color. Three years for our Commemoration, and last year our Fiesta appeared as though it would have, but high very dry winds destroyed the show. Also be aware there is one flush of growth a year in the spring. Mine start in mid-April, and shoot elongation is done by 3-4 weeks, thought the leaves aren't yet fully mature. Lastly, leaf size varies with cultivar. The leaves of our Fiesta are significantly larger than the Commemoration. Do you know if and what cultivar you bought? Almost looks like Commemoration to me, but it's only a guess. Arktrees

That's some exotic manipulation Conifer50. Great pic. Wow Garen, that must be the biggest GP I've seen pictured. It certainly seems to speed up as it gets older, mine is still in the very slow period for now. Thanks for posting that. Sorry you lost yours, the winter toll across the US collectors is not far short of catastrophic.

Always just use water for aphids here too. I'm actually happy that once I see aphids, very soon I see my first lady bugs of the season and a week later I can't find an aphid. But from your description, I am not certain those are aphids. You might want to dig out your camera and post a photo to be sure.