It is amazing. Speaking with the farmer behind us he believes his corn is about 2 weeks behind because the rainfall has come down in very short periods and mostly run off. On top of that most of the large rain producing systems have gone either north or south of us so far. It all evens out in the end so of course last night and today we got pounded with rain. On the bright side I will not have to water it for a while. The mulch now does look kind of weird compared to the way everyone else piles up mulch to the trunk. Hopefully as it grows I can expand the mulch ring and keep it not as deep so that it is more flat and does not draw attention to the flare as if it disappears into a hole of mulch. Thanks for all the advice and I will keep an eye on the tree the rest of the summer and provide updates. My hope is that the tree is putting a lot of energy into creating new roots so that way it can take up nutrients and plant itself firmly in the ground since it is in a very windy location. Then in the next couple of years it can start adding height. Kimberly, keep me updated if your tree retains its leaves. Mine have been red for a few weeks and none have dropped. My hope is that they will stay on for some time and then those branches will leaf out again next year. Do you have pictures of the tree? I would be interested to see if it looks the same as mine posted. I hope I can ask one more question: When a tree is stressed and drops leaves early, does that branch also die? For example, on the couple of branches that all the leaves are red, do the leaves just die off or does the branch usually die off and need to be cut out the following year? My thoughts on the landscapers/nurseries that sell the trees are they are much more short sighted that what we believe. I think it is not much about selling you another tree down the road when the one they put in dies. I think it is about the process of putting it in. They came with a 2 Â 2.5" caliber tree with a large root ball and a bag of mulch. They left with nothing. I would think that once they dig this big of a hole, plant the tree and use some to backfill, they would be left over with quite a bit of clay from deep in the hole. Instead of taking it away they just pile it on top of the root ball, cover it with mulch and leave empty handed. If you think about it, and they had to take away just a few buckets of soil from each tree they planted, this would create a problem for them with what to do with it. It is much easier on their part to plant wrong that do what is right. It is too bad because if they would have just left a pile of the soil that was not needed, I could have found a use for it.

I know what your saying. I'd make sure you ask for a discount, or make sure there is some type of coupon. Its not in the nursery's best interest to overwinter B&B product. 2" caliper would be a good size. Just make sure you have a well branched tree with a noticable central leader. Try to avoid co-domindate leaders. I would go with Sun Valley over the October Glory as well. The more I read the more I see that Red Maples are going to be subject to chlorosis (yellowing of leaves) in aklaline soils. So if you have anything more than slightly alkaline looks like you need to go to the Autumn Blaze. Fall color may not be as brilliant and it is a "little" more suseptible to breakage (good branch structure and proper crotch angles will help alleviate any breakage problems). I wouldn't really worry about it, unless your very prone to severe ice storms or severe winds storms (winds gusting more than 50 MPH). But, Autumn blaze is faster growing and much more tolerant of drought and alkaline soils.

There has been posting in the past to the effect that Autumn Blaze ('Jeffersred') has an untidy internal structure with numbers of branches going every which way within the overall, otherwise compact shape. So I wouldn't bother with trying to force yours to have stereotype perfect branching, it runs against the nature of the beast. One thing I would do is think about moving it farther away from the house, during the winter when it is leafless. Both parents of Freeman maple produce large trees more than 60 ft. tall, and this particular selection is known to form a comparatively broad crown. Here, where Freeman maples have been much planted in commercial centers and similar settings many of them are now looking out of scale, with crowns too tall, trunks and roots too big for their planting sites.

To be precise, pre-emergent herbicides only have an impact on weed seeds (or any kind of seeds) - they prevent either full germination or root development. But they have NO detrimental impact on existing plants or weeds ("pre-emergent" means before the weeds emerge or germinate). That is the job of the post emergents and they can be either foliar or directed to the roots in their mode of operation. Different herbicides work differently. You spread enough 2,4-D on the lawn, all sorts of plants - like your tree - will start showing adverse effects The issues with using weed and feed products is that they are a very inefficient method of controlling lawn weeds (you are broadcasting herbicides across a large area rather than directing specifically at the weeds); they migrate easily into groundwater and are one of the largest contributors to water pollution and they have an adverse effect with small children and pets. If you need to control weeds, a dedicated weed control product spot sprayed directly on the weed is a much better approach. Just avoid granular (and especially the combo granular) products, as these are the ones that leach into groundwater and are taken up by pet paws and bare feet.