Thank you!! I guess I can look forward to some flowers on it soon (hopefully)!

Thanks All for the info! I think you are correct, Flora UK, it is a Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum 'Mariesii' After reading the link you included (thanks!) it was clear that that is my tree, or actually, now I realize, Shrub! I don't have any close up pics, and it's not in bloom yet, so they probably wouldn't reveal much. After all the info though, I am almost positive it's what Flora mentioned. Ken, you made me giggle. No, I wouldn't *really* give it a hair cut! I will prune it back. I haven't done a thing to it since we got here, so its probably time. And yes, it is much too close to the house! But I love it and there is no way I could part with it. And now I'm off to learn how to properly prune a Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum 'Mariesii' :)) Tulip Smiles.

What else... Rainfall. How much over the whole of the year, and when in the year. How much mist? How high are you above sea level? Does your property face the sun (South, for you) or are you shaded by hills, buildings, whatever, and don't see the sun until later in the day? Does the frost take it's time about melting, even when it's sunny? When is your first/last frost of significance (the one that terminates the tomatoes or mushies the young bean plants)? Is your soil acid, or alkaline or neutral? 6,5,4 is tending acid. 8,9 is tending alkaline. 6.5-7.5 is around the neutral range. You can buy a home test kit from your garden centre or farmers' supply depot. With maples and cherries, I'd guess at moderately acid - especially if you have pines and native rhododendrons in your woods/bush. How deep is the topsoil, and does it dry out over the summer? Do you have boggy patches in the woods, or is it mostly well-drained after the heavy rains? How dense are the roots in the area where you might want to have planting pockets for treasures? And what sort of shade??? Do the trees cast shadows sprinkled with patches of light on a sunny day? (Dappled light.) Or does it look as gloomy as a winter day when you go in on a summer's day? (Dense shade) Dry shade is the sort of thing you get on the north side of the house under the eaves. Rarely gets natural moisture. A useful zone for drying out bulbs over summer, but can be a gardening challenge. Hope that's helped a bit.

Forests are often defined by their dominent species in a the mature or last climax succession. For example a if a woodland site is completely burned first smaller bushes will grow then successively larger trees until eventually you get a fairly stable group of plants. It sounds as if you might be in a Maple, Cherry Beech Appalachain type of forest. If you find a forestry text ( also may be called sylvics or sylviculture) you can find a list of what types of trees grow. Usually this will include the big trees and the understory trees. It has been several years since I studied this but I think you might find. Red Maple, Black Cherry, American Beech, Tulip Popler, Sugar Maple and Hemlock as some of you dominate species. Understory might include grey birch, yellow birch, witch hazel, sassafrass. The non-woody plants and much harder to define because they change more rapidly. As the trees grow the shade conditions change and plants that grew well before no longer do. If an area loses its trees by wind or fire wildflowers and other plants which have not been there for years suddenly appear because there is more light. The seeds have been in the soil all the time waiting for the right conditions to grow, this is called the seed bank.