Thank you very much for all of the helpful replies. I guess I will wait till fall and see how things go, and be prepared to replace them if they don't survive another summer. First of all, here are a couple of photos of the trunk of the one in the yard (the worst one). You can see where I recently dug out the excess soil piled around the tree and attempted to get it at the level it probably should have been at when they planted the trees. Dwrecktor, it sounds like your experience was very close to mine. Do the pictures above look like your trees did? How long was it between the time your trees were planted and when you removed the excess soil? Mine will have been in the ground for 3 years in September. I sure wish I had known to do that right away. Arktrees, great suggestion on the perc test - I will do that. I do know that the soil is heavy red clay and there isn't much topsoil since they took that away when they built the homes. As a rule, our soil tends to be slightly alkaline from what I've heard. It gets very hot and dry here in the summers. Any suggestions as to what might be a good replacement tree? Since my house faces south, a shade tree is a priority. Other considerations are something that will be less likely to blow over or lose big limbs in our storms, won't overwhelm my small lot, and if it produces something edible (like pecans or fruit) that would always be a plus. Drought and heat tolerance would be pretty high on the list and it would be in full sun pretty much all day on that side of the house. Of course I don't want anything that will mess with the driveway/sidewalk/foundation or plumbing, though maybe that last one isn't a big deal with new construction. I welcome any and all suggestions. My personal favorites are maples and birches and blue spruce, but that's probably the Canadian in me :) I'm guessing none of those would do well down here? I'm guessing the burr oak comment was a joke? What is a chinquapin? Are there any small pecan cultivars that would make a good yard tree, or are they all huge? Also, I was reading about Caddo maples that are native to SW Oklahoma - has anyone had any experience with them? Thanks again everyone for all the helpful replies and for not making me feel more like a total idiot than I already do lol

Yes, we are Sunset 3B here.... The sunshine on most days and temps in summer is the reason so much agriculture grows successfully here. Of course, they irrigate. I am surprised Wenatchee is the same zone as us, but I guess it doesn't take into account the amount of snowfall they get (They are probably the -15f extreme.. we are more like -5f.) RE: the suitability of the trees I listed, The Thornless Honeylocust seems to thrive here, it does well in alkaline soil and is drought tolerant. As a prairie tree, it thrives in full sun. I have noticed many honeylocusts in yards that do not irrigate, growing just fine... The list of negatives of the tree is pretty short, and it seems very adaptable to our conditions. Linden -- RE: irrigating, I don't know. We will have some lawn on the property, so a tree/trees in that area would get more water. Linden tolerates alkaline soil and has small leaves... Thus, it seemed to be an *option.* ash -- I still have to go to our local extension office.. I will ask them about borers here. Ash also tolerates alkaline soil and was another option for my lawn area. If the borers are that bad here, I won't consider it.

My advice is avoid a multistemmed maple. They don't stay the size you see in the nursery forever and once they get older, you run into big problems that will cause them to need to be removed. They're a bad idea... one of many the growers have found to make money. It started out that multi-stemmed trees were created to display ornamental bark such as with river birch. It was a bad idea for them as well but at least there was a reason for it. I think multistemmed maples originated when one day a tree was accidently cut down and sprouted back in 3 or 4 symmetical stems. Some unsuspecting customer thought it looked pretty and asked if it was for sale. Do yourself a favor.... Unless you're out west or have alkaline soil, go with red maple. It's a better tree. It's not just half red maple like autumn blaze, it's 100% red maple. And don't get a multistemmed tree. Get a tree with one straight leader without any damage or bruises with symmetrical brancing that is not potbound. That's my 2 cents. If you want a small multi-stemmed tree, buy a tree that stays small and is naturally a multistemmed tree. Serviceberry or Ironwood for example. A 50' tree with multiple stems is just a bad bad bad idea!

my best advice ..... get rid of it now.. its driving you insane... lol ... you can take off dead stuff.. any time.. in the next three years ... in the mean time... we see how it continues to leaf out .. consider it an experiment ... not something on the time clock ... if you cant deal with it in tree time.. counted in decades ... then it will just bug you ... its obviously alive ... and all you can do.. is give it the time it needs ... OR.. get rid of it ... never saw the rest of the yard ... but maybe if you planted a nice 3 to 5 foot oak or some such ... out 10 or 30 feet ... you can put in a real experiment.. and watch the smaller outgrow the larger .... and then.. if you decide to chuck it in on this one.. you already have the replacement thriving ... next best tree planting time is fall or spring.. spring for oak ... dont really know what an arborist costs.. nor if i would invest the money in such ... might be more than the cost of that second tree ... ken