I bought them from two reputable nurseries, but nonetheless ones that only offers a 30 day guarantee on plants and trees. They are sugar maples and oaks (I'm in South Carolina) so it's definitely not an issue of cold hardiness. It got cold this past winter (colder than usual from what I understand - I moved here from Iowa last June), but it did not drop below zero. I also did not use any fertilizer or root stimulator at the time of planting. I simply back-filled with the clay soil that the holes were dug from. The oaks were purchased b and b and were in the ground in the late summer; I kept them watered through the winter. They changed colors in the fall (the scarlet oak was beautiful) and held onto their leaves all winter long, losing them only recently. The sugar maple was purchased b and b and planted on the day it was dug from the field (which is about five miles away), which was in december after it had dropped its leaves. It received plenty of water at planting and through the fall and winter as well. The existing root ball is huge, though I realize it's significantly less than what the tree had before it was dug; I hope the digging and subsequent loss of the majority of its roots isn't going to end up killing it. In Iowa I purchased everything in containers. Down here it is significantly less expensive to plant large b and b trees than it was at home, thus, I thought I was doing something pretty special...I'm almost more worried about being able to move the trees if they don't make it than I am the money. They are very large and very heavy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for the responses.

Thanks.. yeah, the new sprout has grown about 6" in the last week and is growing more and more by the day.. but it is kind of laying out right now because it's so weak it won't even stand up straight.. so I'm going to have to stake it.. but I don't want to break it and set the tree back even further. Many of my bur oak saplings (I think they're 3 years old before transplanting) are just sprouting now... so I'm thinking the big one really just got shocked. The reason I haven't worried is that it hasn't sent up any sprouts or anything from the base and it's still juicy green under the bark... so I'm at a real loss. I've been out doing lots of watering and fertilizing (our soil is classified as a Psamment Entisol, which basically means Sahara Desert sand.. though with a little black soil in the top foot).. it is very deficient of all nutrients.. and I had never fertilized until this year. The white pine given to us as a housewarming present in 1999 was growing about 4-6" per year... two years ago I mulched around the base and last year and again this spring I fertilized it and it put on about 2 feet of healthy growth to the top.. so I think I'll continue to work bone meal into the soil in the falls and regular slow release stuff in the springs. The same goes for the apple tree given to us.. half of it died and for a few years it only grew about 1/10th of an inch... but I fertilized it last summer and again this spring.. it's put on over a foot of new growth and it looks healthier than ever. I've learned in this soil, you can't over fertilize (in the burning sense... but not in the 'running down to the water table' sense) and you can NEVER over water. I accidentally let the sprinkler run all night once... there wasn't one puddle.. the only response was a nice flush of lush green growth on the grass there. I have to water the vegetable garden every day it doesn't rain... it's a challenge... but anything will grow in it since the roots can grow unfettered.

I thoroughly dislike eucalyptus globulus (blue gum) and acacia mearnsii (black wattle), but that's because they were invasive where I grew up and the pollen from the black wattles was horrible. I've seen people try to grow eucalyptus in Raleigh and it's a dismal sight. Even I feel it borders on abusive to take a tree that should be evergreen and magestically tall and have this poor, half dead, stumpy thing dripping bark in your garden. I'm not crazy about the native pines in the southeast US, because they all have prickly pine cones. I can't walk in my back garden in bare feet because of all the cones from the loblollies and long leafs (long leaves? LOL).

Hi MT! Oh, gosh, thanks for the compliment that I "seem to know so much". I want you to know that I am rolling on the floor laughing because EVERYTHING I know I have learned the hard way by doing everything wrong and then having to educate myself to correct my errors!!!! Of course, experience is the best teacher, but it can be a painful (and expensive) one. Anyway, if we'd had an internet with something like Garden Web when I started gardening as a young adult in the 1970s, I think the learning experience would have been a lot less painful. LOL I'll try to come up with some suggestions for shade, but I don't have a lot of experience with shade, as we built our home in an old cow pasture in between two wooded areas, so I have almost all sun, except for the shade of the one large pecan tree in the front yard. I do have lovely natural wooded areas on some of our acreage, but the copperheads and rattlesnakes enjoy them more in the warm weather than I do. First, when you say you have shade, I don't know what kind of shade. Heavy shade? Dappled shade? Shade all day? Most of the day? For the sake of making a list of shade-loving shrubs, I'll assume you have fairly heavy shade all day long. Some good shrubs for shade are: Abelia grandiflora, aka Glossy Abelia: This is a graceful, arching, spreading shrub that will become about as wide as it is tall. It can grow in full sun to part shade, but I don't know if it will flower well if it is in heavy shade. The leaves are fairly small. It flowers in late spring to early summer, and the flowers are small, sort of tubular and white to pink. The old standard form gets about 6' tall and 6' wide. There are smaller dwarf varieties, like "Sherwoodii" and "Compacta" which eventually get about three feet tall. A taller one (3' to 5' when mature) that has really pretty purple flowers is "Edward Goucher". Abelia is considered semi-evergreen to evergreen. Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hyndrangea quercifolia). Different from most hydrangeas, this one has leaves shaped like an oak leaf. It will get about 6' tall and will eventually spread out that wide. It has lovely fall color, which is a bonus. It blooms in early summer. There are many cultivars in different sizes. It isn't truly evergreen, but its foliage and flowers will stay on the plant until mid-winter. Oregon Grape Holly (Mahonia aquifolium): One of my favorites for shade. It gets from 3 to 6 feet tall, and 3 to 4 or 5 feet wide. It has beautiful bluish-green evergreen foliage. It has lovely yellow blooms in the spring, and the berries are bluish-black. It is really prickly, so don't plant it too close to paths or play areas. English Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) does better in our climate than Japanese (littleleaf) Boxwood. It is just your standard, compact green foundation shrub that has little pest and disease problems. Sometimes in very cold winter the foliage will turn brown, though, so that's a negative. It does need very well drained soil as it will drown and die if it sits in waterlogged soil for any length of time. There are many cultivars of English Boxwood available. Kerria aka Japanese Kerria (Kerri Japonica) is a lovely flowering shrub for shady sites. It prefers shady sites with rich, humusy soil. This is one of those shrubs that grows in an arching manner, so it needs room to spread out. You can't prune it tightly like you could Boxwood, for example. It blooms in spring and early summer. And it is prone to foliar dieases, so it needs good air circulation. It is deciduous. Possumhaw Holly (Ilex decidua). I have these everywhere on my property, from full sun to full shade. When mature they can get to be the size of a small tree...15 to 20 feet tall and spreading 5 to 10 or 15' wide. It is deciduous but has lovely berries that stay on the plant until mid- to late-winter. I think it will grow in any soil. There are many named cultivars. One of the prettiest is "Warren's Red" or "Warren Red". It has gorgeous red berries and lots of them. There are some dwarf and compact cultivars that stay much smaller. The birds love the berries. Southern Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera). Another of my faves. There is a standard version and a dwarf version, which is Myrica pussilla. Wax myrtles are in the same family as bayberry and the foliage has an attractive aroma sort of like bayberry. The standard wax myrtles can be pruned and limbed up like trees, which is how I treat mine, and the dwarf ones will top out at about five feet, while the standard ones can go to 15 or 20 feet. They are fairly fast-growing. The foliage is a light green that is almost a yellowish-green. I had to look for quite a while before I found some of them at a Lowe's, as they are not easy to find. Viburnum (Viburnum species) There are many cultivars available in many different sizes. Some are tall, some are short. Some are evergreen, some are deciduous. I have the common native Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum. Many named cultivars are available commecially. Spirea (Spiraea species) These are fairly compact shrubs, reaching from 2' to 6' in height and from 2' to 4' or 5' in width, depending on which cultivar you plant. They bloom in late spring and early summer, and most have flowers in various shade of white, pink or red. They are deciduous. I have them in a place where they get early morning direct sun, and then dappled shade at mid-day and full shade from mid-afternoon on. They are easy to grow. There are many, many cultivars available. Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) Many cultivars of this evergreen shrub are available in many sizes. They will grow in almost any soil, and in everything from full sun to almost total shade. Mine get some afternoon shade. They bloom in early spring, and the berries are lovely. Some of the common ones you'll see in stores are "Stokes" which is a dwarf and "Pride of Houston" which is a tall, upright version. I don't know of any dwarf red oaks, but Shumard Oak is among the prettier oaks with red fall color. If you have heavy shade and good soil, there are a lot of red-leaved dwarf Japanese maples. You can plant dwarf crape myrtle anytime now, I would think. Hope this info helps. Dawn