Thanks. The leaves aren't at the top. They are in the lower part of the tree... Watering it may be tough since it's surrounded by fence (in the corner of backyard) 8 feet spacing... Next door never waters yard. In the back, it's just empty lot. I do water deeply every week or so during the summer if no rain though. All of other trees including shantung maples look very healthy in rocky limestone soil. Bur came from Lowe's so I wouldn't be surprised if it had major girdling problem because I have seen others from lowe's when they were pulled out of ground. They both had big ball of circling roots... Oh well. That was my very first tree I planted. Didn't know any better back then. Dax, Come down to Texas this fall. Plenty of acorns from both trees! I love Q. Buckleyi. Probably my favorite oak tree. I collected a bunch of acorns from it but unfortunately they germinated in the fridge way too early. Need to do a better job of storing them over the winter. You can tell them apart by looking at their buds in fall/winter. Q. Buckleyi has buds that is all equal size (co-dominate). That's why they tend to have multiple trunks in the wild. Q. Shumardii has larger central bud while the lateral buds are smaller. I can also tell which is which that is not suitable for alkaline soil. if the buds are 1/8" of an inch, they will suffer badly in the alkaline soil. It's common around here unfortunately. Buds need to be at least 1/4" to do well here. My neighbor directly across the street has the wrong red oak and it's so ugly. All yellow leaves that are turning brown. Have to see that every day out of window. I provided info about it to them and they haven't done anything for 2 years! Getting worse every year... Damn shame. I need shade from there (hot afternoon sun). Not only that their next door neighbors somehow killed nice sized lacebark elm over last weekend! All leaves are brown right now... Oh well. Gonna be tough digging that bur oak out...

The Bur Oak was a little over 7 feet tall when I planted from a 10 gallon container. I had to do quite a bit of cutting and pulling of the circling roots before planting it. I checked the Bur today and its finally putting on some new growth, the new shoots are only a few inches long in some places, but thats more than I had before. This may be the justificatin I need to keep it, maybe it will really start to take off next year. Had this oak been grown in a rootmaker pot, I wonder how much quicker the new growth would have started... Regarding your comment about transplant size/time to grow, I have another Bur oak that I planted 1 year after acorn germination (it was only 9 inches tall when I planted it). The first year it was in the ground it doubled in size (from 9" tall to 18" tall). This is its second year, and so far its put on 6" growth in multiple places. It leaved out 3 weeks before my 7' bur oak (which is still in the process of leaving out), but I don't know if the timing of the budding/new leaves has anything to do with tree health. I'm very curious to see if it can catch up to my slow to grow 7' Bur. I plan to buy another Bur Oak and/or Mexican White Oak from CTF regardless of if I decide to keep my existing 7' Bur. The west side of my house is 50' long, so I need more shade trees lined up - all I have on that side is one Chinese Pistachio.

Lou and Phoenix-great information on red oaks. I appreciate it. They are gorgeous trees and would probably have been my first choice if not for the possibility of oak wilt. I would certainly consider one for the back yard where it isn't so devastating if it succumbs to oak wilt. The one thing that comes to mind is that there are no red oaks in my neighborhood, so commingling of root zones wouldn't be a problem; however, does the insect that spreads oak wilt exist only around oaks, or is its territory non-specific to oaks so that it could be in our area just waiting for a potential victim? Bostedo-I would love to have a pecan, but am worried about having so tall of a tree so close to the house. I've heard that they are weak-wooded trees and suffer from sudden limb drop. Plus, with it being in the front yard, I'd have every kid in the neighborhood hunting pecans in my yard in the Fall. Just wouldn't want the possibility of one of them getting hurt. I totally agree with your comment regarding the Arizona ash. It's a wonderful tree, just not suited for our area. These are all great suggestions and I really appreciate everyone's time and expertise. Please let me know if any others come to mind. We'll probably be haunting the nurseries to check out all of your recommendations over the next few weeks while we wait for Fall to plant the new tree. I hate losing my Arizona ash but it has been a worry over the last few years, so it will be nice to have the opportunity to have a quality tree suited to our area with less problems. Thanks again!

I'm in cedar park and we're loosing leaves on our oaks like crazy, which is in turn making me crazy since the leaves are terrible on sidewalks, and don't break down when they blow under other plants, so you have to go in after them. No large growth spurts, just lots and lots of rain, and a location that doesn't get as much sun as it could. (4-5 hours a day, if we ever get a day with some sun. I'm thinking it's a leaf spot/ rust of some description, because when I sprayed it with ortho, it cleared up briefly, but then with the additional rain it's come back with a vengeance. When we get paid on monday I'm picking up some more Ortho and dousing the heck out of the tree. I've had enough with ugly leaves.