I live in Mn and many years ago I worked for a plant store. There was a local vender who sold his bonsais through us. The evergreen ones had to go through cold storage during winter months. He offered to, for a fee to over winter them in a cold frame green house..winters here are too cold to just put them outdoors. Of course most customers didn't want to bother so he didn't sell too many of those, also most customers didn't know this. He did sell some tropical ones also that didn't need cold dormancy but most people wanted the evergreen type of typical bonsai. He did have a few maples at times too but they need a cold dormancy, but not quite as prolonged or as low a temperature.

It is amazing. Speaking with the farmer behind us he believes his corn is about 2 weeks behind because the rainfall has come down in very short periods and mostly run off. On top of that most of the large rain producing systems have gone either north or south of us so far. It all evens out in the end so of course last night and today we got pounded with rain. On the bright side I will not have to water it for a while. The mulch now does look kind of weird compared to the way everyone else piles up mulch to the trunk. Hopefully as it grows I can expand the mulch ring and keep it not as deep so that it is more flat and does not draw attention to the flare as if it disappears into a hole of mulch. Thanks for all the advice and I will keep an eye on the tree the rest of the summer and provide updates. My hope is that the tree is putting a lot of energy into creating new roots so that way it can take up nutrients and plant itself firmly in the ground since it is in a very windy location. Then in the next couple of years it can start adding height. Kimberly, keep me updated if your tree retains its leaves. Mine have been red for a few weeks and none have dropped. My hope is that they will stay on for some time and then those branches will leaf out again next year. Do you have pictures of the tree? I would be interested to see if it looks the same as mine posted. I hope I can ask one more question: When a tree is stressed and drops leaves early, does that branch also die? For example, on the couple of branches that all the leaves are red, do the leaves just die off or does the branch usually die off and need to be cut out the following year? My thoughts on the landscapers/nurseries that sell the trees are they are much more short sighted that what we believe. I think it is not much about selling you another tree down the road when the one they put in dies. I think it is about the process of putting it in. They came with a 2 Â 2.5" caliber tree with a large root ball and a bag of mulch. They left with nothing. I would think that once they dig this big of a hole, plant the tree and use some to backfill, they would be left over with quite a bit of clay from deep in the hole. Instead of taking it away they just pile it on top of the root ball, cover it with mulch and leave empty handed. If you think about it, and they had to take away just a few buckets of soil from each tree they planted, this would create a problem for them with what to do with it. It is much easier on their part to plant wrong that do what is right. It is too bad because if they would have just left a pile of the soil that was not needed, I could have found a use for it.

Not sure what area of ME you're in, so don't know your zone, which would affect your list of possibilities. Red oak is hardy to zone 3, and pin oak is good to 4, both have an average growth rate of close to 2'/yr once established in good conditions, and both have the benefit of beautiful fall colours. We purchased a few young pin oaks this spring, and I am really liking their form and colour, more so than the red oak. Blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica) is quite tolerant of soil conditions, with beautiful fall colours as well, and some cultivars are faster growing than others. If you wish to look outside the box, bald cypress (taxodium distichum) may work if you are in zone 5, likes moist to wet soils, is very fast growing, and has beautiful, soft, ferny foliage. I don't expect their are many bald cypress in ME! Katsura (cercidiphyllum japonicum) is hardy to zone 4, adaptable, and relatively fast growing though may take some time to become established. It also colours beautifully in fall, though its heart shaped blue green leaves are pretty enough throughout the year, and has an added bonus that when the leaves colour in fall and are warmed a little by the sun, they emit a wonderfully sweet fragrance that has been likened to caramelized brown sugar or cotton candy. Even my young seedling has done this. Have fun in your search, and don't be afraid to get creative!

I hate to contradict you Mike (you're such a nice guy!), but concrete leaching calcium carbonate out the lime component of its ingredients is well documented. It can happen just by exposure to air (combining with CO2) or with water - rain water, irrigation water, groundwater, etc. This is a process called carbonation and it actually makes the concrete structurally stronger (if unreinforced). Concrete is strongly alkaline - around 12.0 - and while most intense with fresh concrete, leaching occurs over the lifetime of the concrete structure. Does this have an effect on soil pH? You bet, but I've yet to read any definitive studies that measure that specifically. If one's soil is only slightly to moderately acidic to begin with, as it is here in the PNW, planting acid loving plants in close proximity to concrete structures (foundations, walkways, driveways, etc.) is very likely to cause less than optimum growth as the higher pH will limit nutrient access. It's very easy to test - just do a pH test of unamended soil taken from a foundation planting bed and compare it to the same test with soil taken from out in the open, well away from any concrete . The foundation bed will have a pH noticeably higher than the open soil. Could this affect the maple? Possibly, but it is something that can be easily overcome with an acidic fertilizer like one would use for rhodies and azaleas.