While this thread was pointlessly bumped, I wanted to thank Dean for sharing that study. I have 2 A. pindrow and they've been just fine here. Also showing enough root rot resistance _for northeastern Maryland_ (elsewhere, YMMV) A. recurvata A. alba (there's a huge one at Longwood Gardens, and a big one at National Arboretum) A. nordmanniana Failures: any western US fir on its own roots - I've tried several of them; although my house came with a Concolor fir that was 40-50' tall, it was in slow decline the whole time and died after one of the mega-wet spells we had in the early 2010s. If you had to chose one as slightly tolerant for the eastern US, it would be that one. And they are common landscaping material up north like the NYC and Boston suburbs. Abies delavayi on its own roots Btw to 'Cliff' ungrafted Noble Fir, Abies procera, is 100% no go for anywhere in the southern US other than the highest mountain towns like Boone, NC. Will probably die the first year of root rot, as did mine.

It may not be appropriate to suggest myself but I have a kitchen and bath store in Alexandria and would love to talk to you. I work with Bridgewood Custom normally prices out between woodmark and kraftmaid prices most of the time and is highly customizeable in framed and frameless construction cabinets. I also work with Geppetto which is a company based in North Carolina that is very good at custom cabinets at pretty good prices. I try to be the most competitive small company out there. You can search my name on here and see I have given a lot of product knowledge to people asking about low cost products. Most of my longer posts are about RTA because no one in the industry who understands the supplier side of it seems to post on here to actually educate the posters of the site with the truth. my website that is not finished but organized enough to give you a general idea of what products I work with is www.mistycreekcustomkitchens.com I can be contacted from there if you have an interest.

Well, during our lengthy search for the perfect marble and the perfect matte black granite we probably checked out 10 slab yards/fabricators in the DC/MD/VA area. By far, we found the best service at Classic Granite and Marble in Jessup. We were thrilled that their templating and installation were also just perfect. We took our layout with measurements on our first visit (no appointment) and walked out with exact prices for the 4 different materials we were considering. They came out 3 different times, at no additional cost, to be sure the template was perfect. During the first template, they discovered that our island wasn't aligned properly. We had to order a new corner cabinet, which would delay the countertop installation several months after their findings. Classic had no issues holding our material and waiting for the cabinet issue to be resolved. Andy was superb and I can't recommend them enough. In the end, I found the marble slabs I wanted at Daltile in Chantilly, VA - Classic drove down and picked them up. As far as other slab yards I visited (these do not do fabrication)- Universal - had great selection, but as stated above, you can't pick your specific slabs Marva Marble and Granite - Great selection, no calacatta Daltile - Good selection, very friendly, moved many slabs on a busy Saturday for us. NSI - near BWI - fantastic selection, lots of exotic choices GranTops - in Frederick - outdoor slab yard, they also carry soapstone from M.Tex Avanti - Great selection, lots of exotic stones Good Luck!!!! HTH!

Thanks embothirium, the linked article was interesting. The engineer in me wishes there was a way to get a more accurate and (somewhat) tailored growth estimate for a given species but I think the bottom line is that there are way too many variables/unknowns at play. Thanks Todd. I didn't know the foliage on the miami was larger; interesting. After a bunch of phone calls, I found another nursery (an hour away) that has a few 15 gallon specimens although they subsequently told me they were ~5 feet tall(including the container) which sounds a little small for a 15 gallon. I may call back this weekend to try and get clarification before I drive out there with our CRV. I had 2 (25/30 foot) Ashe trees in our front yard that died from the Emerald Ashe borer and had to be removed last year. I don't want to put the crapes in the same exact spots but I'll use them to fill in some of the open space (void). I'm struggling a little with where in our front yard I should plant them. There are definitely places I don't want to plant them due to: (a) county/utility easements (not too close to the road or power lines), (b) existing trees/plants that require spacing, (c) views/sight-lines from inside the house that we don't want to obstruct, and similarly (d) views from the street we don't want to obstruct. It's these latter two considerations and imagining how the (mature) trees would look if they were planted at one location versus another that I find challenging.