You found some good ones, some mediocre ones and one to definitely avoid. Starting with my personal favs... Northern Red Oak. Huge tree. Fast growing. very desirable. Godd fall color. Big leaves Bur oak. The same but without the fall color and not as fast growing. Amalanchier (aka serviceberry) very nice tree. It is a small tree. I'd recommend it for use with a small grouping of them for massing effect of the flowers, berries and fall foliage. You should note however that these send up suckers big time which means you'll have to get out there 2-3 times a season to cut them unless you want it to turn into a multistemmed colony. Would also make a nice specimen tree for a small front yard. The hawthorns can be variable. The best on the market right now is probably winter king. It's another small tree with a wide-spreading canopy. Freemans maple is a cross between an undesirable species, silver maple and a desireable species, red maple. This hybrid is advantageous for folks out west with alkaline soils that silver maple tolerates but red maple doesn't. If this soil issue is not a concern for you, I would recommend red maple instead. There are countless cultivars like october glory, red sunset and the list goes on and on. There are some issues I have with autumn blaze maples but I won't get into that. Hackberry. On the blah side. Has some issues with pest/disease but tolerant of tough sites. Not the most ornamental of the bunch but wildlife is attracted to the fruit. Norway maple is an exotic maple that has become a pest species in a portion of the country. They are slow growing and usually have poor to fair fall color. They come in all shapes and sizes though. Most look like a dense lollipop. A far better alternative to norway maple is sugar maple. Depending on the use, sugar maple is not a good choice such as for a street tree as they are not as tolerant of road salts and urban stresses. I don't know if that's an issue though. Personally, I'd plant a sugar maple instead and ask your nursery why they are selling an invasive species like norway maple. If you want more of a lollipop with med-fast rate of growth, October Glory Red Maple. Ask for it by name.

Thanks for the advice guys. I did contact one of the local nurseries up there and they have Northern Gold. Once we have our house up, I'd like to get 3 of them and plant them close to the house so I can see the gorgeous spring color. In the meantime, my neighbour has 3 of these, 2 huge bushes and 1 baby. I asked him if I could have some cuttings when he pruned and he said 'Okay, let's go.' We went to one of the large bushes and he started to prune out some rather large branches for me. I took them home and put some in water and planted the others. Last time I checked, the ones in water were still growing, with new leaves on them. I want to see which way they root faster. If they all root, I will have lots of forsythia. To bad he couldn't remember the name of the ones he had. Marg

Deidre,no your not crazy, your a garden junker! All of yall have such cute ideas. I think you would like the garden junk forum. Alot of people over there w/ all kinds of unique & funky garden projects & objects using recylcled stuff in with their gardens.Friendly group of people & lots of ideas. Fun to look.....Judy

Socks, Maria is an exchange student from Spain and has to have all this documentation to prove she actually took the classes and passed. I can't wait to retire. Sleeperblues, I decided to take the class later in the year. Now that I've thought about it, though, I'm not so sure I'm even going to take it. I may do an on-line course, though, just so I have some of the knowledge.