Rhus copallina 'Prairie Flame' will perform as required in the situation described. It will take time to "fill in" if density is a requirement, but it is not so vigorous a plant as will defy mowing. It is not so vigorous as to prevent other things from growing with it either - so, if you want a "pure stand" you might have to do some weeding or discouragement of other plants volunteering amongst it as it get established. I am quite happy with my stand of 'Prarie Flame', which I have been growing for almost 10 years on extremely poor quality B/C horizon droughty clay soils.

I've been watering mine twice a day because they were bone dry like everything else in the recent extreme heat. I checked down 2 inches to make sure they were really dry and not just surface dry. Should I let the deeper soil get dry around them? They're new plants and I thought I had to baby them with watering their first year. I read they're supposed to be clay busters so that's a big plus.

Thanks for the explanation. I cannot get to my fixture easily. My ceilings are 12 feet and we do not have a sufficient ladder to reach. If work has to be done higher than 7-8 feet, we hire someone to come do it. I bought an LED flood light at HD this afternoon. It is 1600 lumens. I have BRIGHTNESS!!! As in, don't look at the light, it will blind you!!! The only problem is it is 5000k, which means it is very very blue. The guy who helped me said HD has a 90 return policy for any reason. I'm going to see if I can live with it. I only use that light for a few minutes from time to time. It is on a separate switch and doesn't come on with the other kitchen lights. If the blueness drives me nuts, I'll take it back. If I had thought ahead while we were building, LED bars or tape under the overhang would have been perfect. They may still work, but I'll have to think about where to drill a hole to get the wires to the driver. I don't want to drill a hole in my granite. I had the bathroom wired to put LED lights in the toe-kick area to use as a night light. Another deferred project!

Kay - Colorado Moon Fire is a little workhorse. It always jkeeps putting up more scapes here too, usually blooming to the end of July or early August. Mantis - Lord of the Storm's real name is Lord of the Wind. I think I was out in sun for too many hours today. :) The windswept look is the reason I bought it. That cultivar always has a lot of movement.