The plant that I saw in Duluth was not a sumac but thanks anyway. The ends of each branch of this shrub like plant had the end leaves brilliant yellow and red in a sort of "Rod Stewart" hair-do. Very spikey thin leaves where the leaves were green all the way up the branch until about 10 inches from the top where the leaves changed to yellow and red. Like a pointsettia's colored "flower" is just the green leaves changed to color, this shrub did the same thing. The leaves did not change shape just color as it got to the ends.

I have a beautiful 40+ yr.old staghorn sumac that was brought to NM from NE Iowa as a seedling. It is so oriental looking with the airy, fuzzy branches (? 'stag horn') & turns the most brilliant hues in Fall unlike most trees here in NM. It does have red seed heads that are sour tasting & am told early peoples used them to make a lemonade-like refreshing drink. Yes, it does put out suckers from the roots but I have so many persons wanting a tree like this one that I just dig the suckers & transplant them into containers for them to plant at their places. As vigouous as these 'upstarts' are, it is rather difficult to get one rooted though. I'd try these rooting rather than try & start from the seed though; I have never had any grow from the seeds that drop!

Hi i recently dug up 5 sumacs for at a friends place. I wasn't sure if i should only take the smaller ones, but ended up taking larger ones.I planted them early in the spring, before the buds got large & opened ( I think the end of april- as they leaf later that other tree's) The smallest one is approx 4 ft high, and the other 4 are 7-8 ft high. I just made sure that i got as much of the main root, and smaller of shoots as possible. Once planted i watered them every day for about 2 wks ( although one that i planted in out back yard- i never once watered after i planted it- and it even took), and the other 4 all took with no problems.I was very surprised. I had researched it for some time, checking out other garden sites etc on the web on their care, the positive's & negatives of planting them. The only draw back people advised me of that i also knoew about was the suckers you'd get. All the advise i've gotten is that they just cut them off with trimmers of the lawnmauer - and the sucker doesn't grow back.The suckers only needed to be delt with about once every year- and grow fairly close too the surface of the ground ( 6inches or so). They do need space too grow, but as long as your willing to put up with the suckers, and the care of these, sumacs do provide a nice accent too one garden.Great fall colour etc good luck

I love the sumacs on my country property - note the word country. I have no problems with them growing in the roadside ditch or on the edges of the forested areas - they don't grow at all under a canopy. When they sprout up in the grassy areas abutting the woods they simply get mowed down with everything else, or pulled up if they start to encroach into the gardens. I wonder if people growing them in the city have tried just mowing - if a tree can't get nutrients via sunlight even the roots will die off eventually, I would think.