For some trees in their first year in the ground always look bad but comes back looking much better next year (small size trees). Also, planting time does make a huge difference during the first year. Planting in fall/winter will give you much better looking tree compared to spring planting. Sometimes the tap water does funky stuff to the leaves when watered so if you use sprinkler system for the lawn, it's probably why. If you're worried about watering too much, look at the year of 2007 when Texas got a lot of rainfall. That happened to be such awesome year for tree growth. Must be something in the rainwater, eh? As far as getting rid of grass, I use round up to kill them then mulch over dead grass. I occasionally us RU whenever grass pops through the mulch. Annoying but that's Bermuda grass for you. It'd take nuclear weapon to get rid of it entirely. Throw in Montezuma Cypress... Pretty cool tree to have that will turn rustic red in the middle of the winter. Mine grew 4-5 ft in their first year. Shantung Maple 'Skinny Dragon' looks like it grew about 5 ft? Blaine's Dragon about 3-4 ft. Super Dragon got burned off unfortunately. I guess full brunt of afternoon sun was too much for lime green color leaves to handle... Or too much water since all the container trees were around it that needed daily watering in the summer. Who knows?

A casual glance outdoors reveals a much more winter-like scene now, as we're 90% defoliated overall. Some color still remains though. A lot of the street trees are Acer rubrum 'October Glory' & various Pyrus calleryana, both of which mostly still have leaves, but past-peak in color. There are also some Scarlet Oaks that still look outstanding - one in particular I'll try to get a picture of tomorrow morning (I go into work at 10:30 so should have good lighting for a pic) - it's a youngish tree, still pyramidal shaped & branched to the ground, but has a very intense, and late developing color every year. From the car I'd guess it's about 10" caliper, so it's no sapling, but not big enough to develop the spreading, mature form yet. Some of the later-coloring Acer rubrum cultivars (some Red Sunset but mostly October Glory) still look great, but the seedling rubrums (wild or planted) are long bare at this point. A few sweetgums are holding on, but mostly drying out and dropping. The white oaks have some leaves, but mostly the browned, dried up ones that hang on most of the winter. Same for the pins. The N. Red oaks are mostly bare or nearly so. Beeches are bare. Liriodendrons are bare. The deciduous conifers are peaking or a bit past now - I'll try to snap some pics of a couple nice Metasequoia tomorrow as well. The Callery pears are average this year. Sugar Maples pretty much defoliated. Some of the Sawtooth Oaks have a nice yellow that is just now developing - these typically stay green until sometime between Nov. 15 & December 1, then normally just turn a weak chartreuse & drop, but this year some actually seem to be turning a good yellow. We'll see what happens -they're my least favorite oak (invasive, not particuarly attractive) but this might redeem them for me temporarily.

The mulch is very thin, not even completely covering the soil. Whose to say mine won't eventually bite the dust. It can still happen and I kind of expect it. I feel like I am on borrowed time. Remember, the first pic is damage from two falls ago as it looks now. There was splitting, peeling and lifting completely around the trunk and as you can see and pretty far into it - notice the gray wood. It continues today all the way up into the branching now. I don't think you have more damage but there are a few differences between our trees. One obvious difference is our zones. Another big difference is the maturity. I bought mine in the late nineties as a small whip meant for mail order. It has been in place since then so the roots are more established. However, yours has more mature bark than mine. Mine just only lost the red color at the stem about the same time as the damage was noticed. I don't have plates and furrows yet. As far as substitutions, I am not a JM expert but there is certainly no lack of them. There are so many beautiful trees. The only reason I grow this variety is because of the winter presence which is strong. The stems are redder than my dogwoods. It isn't my favorite leaf or shape tree if I had to run it against other maples during the other seasons. OK, I know I have a pic somewhere of a more mature tree at the NYBG during winter - it is stunning. It will take a little time, I know I keep promising these pics but I will try to find it before the weekend is over. They are on another computer. BTW, I am not trying to talk you into keeping the tree if you want another one. I can't blame you. I would probably want to move it too even though at this point it would make things worse. I am only comparing our plants. Even though mine didn't die, doesn't mean yours won't. Just offering a possibility that it might not. I wonder what your warrenty was on this plant? I know most places are one year but once in a while, the more expensive nurseris offer more time.

bet you didn't think I'd be jumping in on this thread. I admit sometimes - a lot of the time - I'm a lazy gardener. For various reasons this year I placed the most mail order purchases ever, and at the same time saying "never again". A perfect storm converged of a lot of things being available I wanted to try either for the first time, or the last time LOL. It was over 100 plants if you count the orders I got in late fall. I had ordered just a few seeds last fall but as the spring progressed, with a lot else on my mind like the trip to Cali. I just kept putting it off. And off. And off. Keeping the incoming plants alive was the focus. Finally I sowed some - gasp - in the last week of May! Germination rate wasn't great, but if these survive it will work out ok, because I only really want one Abies georgei and Dalbergia hupehana. Neat trees though they may be, I don't have room for a grove of them. BTW the rosewood is just sleeping for the night. It's actually growing really fast. Some old seeds of a Callistemon 'Woodlanders Hardy' that died in the first cold winter didn't germinate, I guess they had gotten too old.