Hi, I can send you cuttings from my three different types of willow trees that I have. I have Corkscrew or Curly willow, Weeping willow, and Hybrid willow that grows upright to form a graceful, lacy canopy. I also have saplings of Silver maples and Green Japanese maples. I would love several of the Ponderosa Pines! PLMK Thanks, Elly

Dcrosby, You may be right at the edge of zone 5/6. Check the map here. If you are still zone 5, you just need to do some winter protection. It should be fine. Climate affects disease susceptibility. In dryer, more arid climate like AZ or CA, they don't have to deal with fungal disease like we do here in humid East Coast. When you read people's recommendations, you want to see where they live. Different climate gives different results to the same rose variety. Spraying for roses every week or every two weeks is not my kind of fun (anymore). I didn't even want to smell the blooms after I sprayed the bushes. Now I don't spray, most of my roses esp. Austins look naked by mid summer. Here is a link that might be useful: MA new plant hardiness zone map

30 years old PG could attain enormous proportions, something like this (20'x 20') but could be kept at any desired size as it's prunable. Lately I had a chance to inspect (closely) several of 10-15'+ PGs growing at old cemetery and all of them had one thing in common: thick scraggy unbranched trunk to 4-5' and then thinner, but still not productive branches that start producing live shoots only at 6-7' height off the ground. Due to droopy nature of PG, everything above 3-4' was green and flowering (from the distance), but I'm affraid that in a winter and spring it will be not a sight to admire. So, my point is, that since you'll be looking at your tree not from a long distance, but rather closely, you might be better off to grow it as a shrub rather than a tree. Just in case you'd like to see a 'Kuyshu', here it is trained to a tree. It's about 5-6 years old (2 years in my garden and another 3-4 years were trained to tree form by grower) and about 7' tall. As you could see it's much more upright than PG. I think most of 'full size' paniculatas could reach your desired size, but when choosing among them I'd avoid Tardiva as it is a latest to leaf out and bloom of all of them and in your zone you'll not see flowers probably till end of August, while Kuyshu start blooming in late July.

Planting site with fence right there too tight, these grow much larger than current position allows for. Otherwise search the web for phrases like "quince tree pruning" before messing with the top. And understand that trees build height by growing upward for some time before starting to spread sideways more. That that is how an elevated crown is produced, with no stage of a single or small number of stems growing vertically having happened meaning that a shrubby (low forking bush with many stems) habit will result instead.