Feb of '06 I planted a 10 gallon size potted Black Tupelo at my daughters house in northwest Fortworth, zone 8. The first year the tree grew about a foot, but did not leaf out very fully. I thought that was very good considering that the '06 summer was a drought year followed by drought in the winter. This Spring, after the Easter freeze, it rained quite often for several weeks at her place, and the tree is now much better leafed out than it did in all of last year. When I first purchased the tree for her, I made certain to wait until I could get her one that was in its fall leaf color change. That way I could be sure that the tree I chose had good potential to produce abundant red leaf color change in the fall. She has been very pleased with her tree. It often gets very windy where she lives, so at the same time we planted it, we installed 3 "T" stakes around the tree and tied it to the stakes in a manner which still allows the tree to move with the winds, but not so much as to allow the wind to uproot the tree, or to break the tender new roots that have recently begun to grow into the virgin soil. We first intended to keep her trees staked for 3 years. Now, I am considering adjusting the ties so the tree can sway with the wind slightly more during each of the remaining two years. There are narrow growing hornbeam tree cultivars, and they are very durable and bothered by very few pests. But I do not think they are as nice in appearace aa the Black Tupelo, and I think they grow slower than the Black Tupelo.

There is significant overlap on the list of plants to avoid digging in the fall and the list of plants recommended to be sweated. It's quite possible the plants recommended to be sweated could benefit from fall planting, but NOT if you dig them in the fall...spring dug b&B, or container. I can't say as I've heard, or pondered, the question phrased in this way. I can say, I plant more plants in a week than most people do in a lifetime, and my list of plants that prefer fall planting would be as outlined above. Last winter, I sat in on a presentation about producing maple sugar. My background is horticulture, and before that dairy, so the maple world is new to me. What surprised me was that according to the narrative of the presentation is that just about everything I thought I know about tree biology and seasonal behavior, based on a horticultural education and years of experience in nursery production, was apparently unknown to the post graduate degreed staff of one of the only maple research centers. Which begets a series of questions about how do we know what we think we know when it comes to woody plants, physiology, seasonal behavior, and similar tangents. Before this morphs, let this be stated...the presentation was from the head of the Proctor Research Center, attached to the U of VT, and was specifically re: the new production system using high density plantings. This was the end result of a experiment supposedly designed to test how sap flowed in trees, specifically sugar maple, in the spring. So how much of the narrative was in telling a story, how much was just people pondering what could be done, and how much was truly unknown, I have no idea. But the idea of sitting in a presentation where people with advanced in plant physiology supposedly didn't know one of the basic things about tree physiology really makes we wonder how we know what we think we know. The truth is, there is a lot we think we know. No one is going to repeat every experiment on every plant...there may be that many people looking for research projects, but there's not going to be the funding for it. So what we know about this species, based on specific research, is going to be extrapolated. Which ultimately gets us to the current question, or more specifically, the application of the question in dealing with sassafras and persimmon. Ultimately, I'm not sure the nuts and bolts research has been done. If the answer to the question does exist, it's possibly buried in obscure journals that only exist in the bowels of research institutions. More likely, bits and pieces of the answer are locked away in the brains of individuals such as the head propagator for Johnson's...or Sherman's...or Bailey (yeah, I know the ownership of the two)...or Forrest Keeling...or one of several dozen other nurseries or research centers (specifically avoiding Monrovia...never can get a decent answer out of them unless it's how many they want to sell me). So at some point, we get to questions that people ask, and it's possible that question has never been asked to the right person before. the right person would be the one who is going to draft a grant proposal that gets approved to do the research. Could this be such a question? Perhaps? That's a topic in and of itself, and the kind of esoteric discussion best held in the rarified air of Colorado...and soon, maybe a state near you.

Agree with gardengal that starting with a smaller tree is probably better. However, it's also important in our zone to go with a northern provenance (northern seed source) tree. Often blackgums are shipped here from southern wholesale nurseries and have originated from southern provenance parent trees. Check with your retailer regarding their sources. Or go with a named cultivar with proven hardiness. 'Tupelo Tower' is a good one for our area.

Tupelo Tower depending how upright you need it. This one along with Red Rage and Carolyn are fine cultivars especially if you want something a bit more hardy, probably not an issue for zone 6 though. Red Rage has extra glossy foliage and I believe its less likely to get that spot disease the species is susceptible to. Here is the original Carolyn in Madison, WI. This thing is incredible for a zone 4b/5a planting. Fall color is consistent and mind blowing. For the life of me I could not get multiple Sheri's Cloud to grow for me. I think it lacks vigor to begin with and then this species is slow slow slow in neutral to slightly alkaline soils.