Shantung maple doesn't have aggressive root system like Norway or Silver maple. Metro Maples who sells shantung maple in DFW says it's more similar to Japanese maple. That's good enough for me. I planted them on both sides of the driveway, about 5-6 feet away. Another nice thing about it is that it produces a lot of bright yellow small flowers. You'd have to wait for them to get bigger first before they start to flower. A few years ago, a very strong storm blew through my town causing a lot of damage. I thought there was a tornado but probably not. I drove around the neighborhoods to gauge the strength of trees against this storm. I saw this bradford where half of the canopy fell off. Next year, another strong storm took out the rest that fell on the house. I wouldn't touch it. It's a crime that the builders plant bradford trees at the new house. They are EVERYWHERE now. I can see them losing them in 5-10 years and start all over having treeless lawn with 100+F* weather while a bunch of shantung maples around my house are still thriving and producing various of fall colors. I feel sorry for those folks who probably have no idea.

Hi Jan..I had a Liquidamber a couple of years ago, got it from the local council where they give you three trees a year for free, it was about 60cms high when I planted it in the January it never grew and the following Spring it did not re shoot so after a while I dug it up. But determined to have one of those beautiful trees when I went down to Melbourne last May/June I bought one of the ones with the red leaves I planted that when I got back home but the long Summer killed it.. Jan there are plenty of the yellow leafed ones growing around this area actually there is a long line of them near a park not too far from where I live but they are nowhere near as pretty as the red leafed ones..Up your way I would not bother, its best to have a look around your area, ring up your council they may know..I would not plant a Prunus at all they are not meant for our climate. If you want blossoms plant a Tabebuia rosea ( Trumpet tree ) up in Townsville I grew the pinky lilac one and the yellow Tabebuia argentea they both look magnificent in full bloom..Bauhinia x blakeana (Orchid tree ) is another one you could try for flowers which are fantastic in Sept/Oct these two are not really trees I think 6mts ( 20 ft ) is the max. Hope this has helped a little I wanted to post a link to a certain site but they wont allow it due to spam and quite right too but I drool over some of their plants they are so beautiful. And maybe someone will know a Native plant that will look just as pretty ....Cheers...MM.

Thanks for the reply. Greg. So I suppose that means that Trigonia carbonaria is on the long list Australian natives due for extinction, together with all those plants which refuse to be germinated by anything else but their specific little bee. With the push to introduce bumblebees into mainland Australia (so we can buy cheaper tomatoes. They'll never escape from the greenhouses, will they - even though they've done it already in Tasmania!) we do urgently need government money spent on research into insect pollination of natives. The pollinators of the vast majority of our plants are just not known. Wooroonooran, your comment that "To do the right thing, everyone must plant only what occurs/ed in the Regional Ecosystem/s that occur/s on their property, otherwise they are introducing a plant to a new location where it shouldnt be" is very much to the point. My comments are: First - if we knew more about our local natives, we might find that there are more gardenworthy plants among them than we had realised, and choose them more where we're happy to have any old plant so long as it has the characteristics we want - feature tree, good screen, and so on. The difficulty, in such a large country, is finding the information as to what is locally native. One needs to be quite proactive to get hold of it, especially outside the capital cities. General books on growing Australian natives can leave us with a false impression. People who have picked pretty plants out of such books in the belief that they are doing the right thing by the environment, and then find themselves copping heaps from those with higher knowledge, are understandably cheesed off. Second, we all like to grow introduced plants. There is really no difference, in a ecological sense, between growing roses and poinsettias, Norfolk Island pines, Lord Howe Daisies, and Kangaroo paws in Queensland, or even in growing plants that ocur naturally just a few hundred kilometres away. We all try (I'm sure) not to grow the obvious weeds from other parts of Australia. It is more environmentally correct to grow exotic plants that we feel are not going to escape into the bush. However, as long as gardeners garden, there are going to be some apparently "safe" plants that will turn round and bite us on the bum 20 years later. We can only do what seems right at the time, keep an ear to the ground for new discoveries re weed potential, and be prepared to remove garden favourites when their dark side is first glimpsed, rather than insist on complete proof. Thirdly, much of what gardening is, is to plant things from elsewhere. I don't mind this where people can choose a Australian plant because they really want that plant. What gives me trouble is the "natives" that are planted in good faith by so many Austalians including me, because we are restricted to the easily available plants in nurseries. In the case of Eucalypts, a local native gumtree might do the job just as well, AND be...

Woodnative, that's a nice spot you've put together. My Chionanthus are still a few weeks away from flowering, but you've reminded me what I have to look forward to. In these parts, Carpinus caroliniana is an understory tree with a strong preference for moist soils. They can handle more sun, but moist soil is a consistent. They will also look much different in full sun than in their natural shady conditions. Personally, I think they look better when grown in shade. The canopy is more open and with horizontal branching. I've got two growing here, both of which I've sited at the woodland edge. To get a real appreciation for this tree you need to venture into a moist woodland.