Well, after living with in laws for 6 months while the house gets built, we finally moved into the new house 2 weeks ago, I promptly planted 4 taxodium hybrids as soon I get a chance. I have a nice grove of escarpment live oak in the corner of backyard. Never had that much shade so I'm a little excited about what to plant there. Perhaps a couple of JMs with nice red fall color from my brother that he grew from seeds. That's in Houston where he lives so I'm curious to see how they do in bit colder weather over here. There are deer around here but they don't seem to wander close to houses judging on plants on older houses. I guess they are too scared of us unlike at in laws where they come like dogs wanting treats. I've had a couple of big nice looking bucks come right up to me and start eating deer corns out of the bucket! I'm going to miss that. Just so cool...

Laugh - When I saw the Skinny Dragon from ltruett I thought, 'Man, that's a lot like Lou's trees'. My "regular" Shantungs have been "meh" and didn't like the really hot days. The "Fire Dragon" didn't miss a beat. That Skinny Looks great. Metro Maples is on my drive by list if I get up that way - wish I could mail order small ones. - Hair - Truthfully, I have no idea which would survive on their own. Some of the eastern oaks I have my doubts although I did opt for more drought tolerant ones when I could. I suspect the Mexican and Cali/SW oaks would do fine given how little precip they see naturally. pH tolerance is also an unknown. The drip lines are connected to my 'tree zone' that also provides water to many of my larger landscape trees. I've backed down on the waterings this spring from last (many new 30g landscape trees went that previous fall so they need help the first summer or 3) Lacey, Bigelow, Texas Red and Live all grown naturally in the surrounding woods and it's DRY with little soil. Except for the maples, I tried to get as drought and heat tolerant as I could (caddo fits in here as well) back off on water for the oaks to see how they do. Most pics are with a Nikon D7000. Some are iPhone when I don't bring out the big gun... Couple more shots today (iPhone) Q. organensis Compton Oak Acer buergerianum More growth on Loquat Leaf Oak Mexican Blue Oak Turbinella Oak Chisos Red Oak Meléndrez Oak - I need to get more info on this one. Seems to be an evergreen version of the Chiso Red or something like that. ShuWillow Oak - Q. x moultonensis This post was edited by mattm01 on Wed, Apr 2, 14 at 0:38

We had pretty good year for color here. The Maples were better than last year (which was also good), some of the late rubrums are just now coloring up nicely, but most of the Sugars are bare or nearly so. Oaks are coming in nicely. The Scarlet oaks look good, pins are above-average. N. Red not as good as last year,White Oaks a bit more russetty vs the pinkish tones of last year, but overall looking good. Most oaks still have quite a bit of green but are turning quickly now. The leguminous trees in general colored quite well - Redbuds, Yellowwood, Honeylocust, even Black Locusts that didn't get defoliated by the locust leafminer did well. I saw a few Gymnocladus that colored nicely too - all good yellows. Hickories were great as usual, still hanging on but now more brown-yellow than bright yellow. The Liriodendrons are mostly all but bare but some yellow still hanging on. Baldcypress now coloring nicely, but my Dawn Redwoods as well as others around are still entirely green, but I expect them to color up quickly here in the next week or two. We haven't had a freeze here yet, believe it or not. Sunday night was supposed to - we had clear skies and dewpoints in the teens, but a stiff west wind kept the air mixed and we only got to 35. This weekend might freeze though - Saturday looks clear with highs in the mid 40s.

Penny, I would leave the stakes in. They are probably only small bamboo or plastic sticks, and they will offer the plant light support while it settles in and develops its roots. I find that these light stakes are a benefit to the plants when i accidentally stand on them or bump into them. A little protection doesn't hurt, and you can remove them when the stem of the plant looks sturdy, and before there is a risk of the stake putting pressure on the stem. Cheers, Jan