Prairie Flame is a good, smaller version of Rhus copallina with very good fall color and glossy foliage. It sounds like a great choice for the area you described. As it is grown for its foliage and fall color and not it fruit I would not worry about a female.

Thanks midwestdave. I see zero burn on shedding needles here. If Iseli was aware of the compatibility of understock to scion it could be possible they'd be writing a different article-description. DavidV - the same does hold true when it is grafted to anything "other" than Pinus contorta. Bob's emphasized it clearly. The reason he uses seedlings of CJ of course is because of the closest prodigy of seedling and scion, but also because, he has stock plants coning freely. He figured out something of rare proportions whether thru luck/skill - it doesn't matter. It's a wonderful discovery, he's made. Of course mugo - or var. pumilla (used a lot for grafting dwarf/mini conifers in Europe) - or anything of dwarf understock-growth should not be used for long-term compatibility because the scion will soon outgrow the slower understock - creating an imcompatible union that will "snap off", failing later....Speed of the understock needs to be compatible to that of the scion for you others out there that may not know this or understand how to select seedling-understock choices when grafting. var. latifolia should be used for hardiness purposes -(Pinus contorta var. latifolia)..... I'll assume. One more tip - never graft Abies concolor to Abies fraseri. You'll be looking at 100% dead plants in about 10 years. Glad I could be of help. Dax

I must say from my perspective that the annual catalog alone is as much fun as having plants delivered and boxes opened at your doorstep and the information too is, well, gold. Bob, if you see it at all possible in the future it sure would be an asset to me to know the origin in as many cases as possible for the conifers. Having this information would provide details for Records to the ACS Website and in the future could clear up any discussion with elements of uncertainty. While it's true I'm very deep in information already to be added, I will get it all done and my plan is to never stop working/revising records for the ACS Database. It's a hobby for sure. I know it could be a lot to ask cause I'm not footing the bill! Anyways, just thanks to your consideration. Dax

Kookie, I have two differant plants, one is labeled Macrophylla/Latifolia and it's leaves are a thick solid green with lighter colored veins (like the one on the Hawaii site) and the other is labeled Latifolia and the leaves are bigger and have some silver splotches on them and the veining is the same green (like on the Asiatica site where it's also known as Latifolia). It sure keeps us on out toes trying to figure it out! My two plants look very differant so will be interesting to see what others have to add to this. Jo