Generally with trees and shrubs it is best to plant in existing soil and mulch afterward. Special amended beds are more useful to small plants like annual flowers and vegetables with tiny root systems and an genetic background involving popping up in recently disturbed soils with high organic and nutrient content. Your purpleleaf plum bushes are blooming from overwintering flower buds set the previous year. However with this particular type hard pruning each year right after flowering is recommended. In my climate it may be pretty much mandatory due to disease problems. Exclude your little garden helpers with effective fencing. Fertilize if a soil test indicates a need.

Hi Hergrammy - I'm in SW Missouri also. Our utility company gave away purple leaf sandcherries several years ago so I have five in my yard. Only one looks like a tree. The others formed more of a shrub and don't really have a good shape - sort of lop-sided. They do tolerate our heat and drought in the summer and I haven't had any trouble with disease(yet) but they get almost completely defoliated in the summer, then leaf out again and sometimes get defoliated a second time. My little crabapple looses it's leaves also. I don't have any experience with Jane magnolia but tried to grow Black Beauty sambucus and couldn't keep it alive. Do you like redbuds? There are different varieties of those including one with purple leaves. The green leafed ones seem a little tougher though. You could also plant a crape myrtle there if you pick one of the more cold hardy varieties. They're overused in the south so you will find some negative comments about them but it's easy to grow, heat/drought tolerant, and is long blooming. Please feel welcome to also ask about trees or any other gardening questions in the Ozarks Gardening forum here at Gardenweb. The people in that forum will have similar gardening conditions as you so it will be helpful to get their opinions as well. Here is a link that might be useful: Ozarks Region Gardening

So these cuts on either side of the node are made lengthwise for roots to be able to come out, correct? How deep should these cuts be made? Just cut down into the cambium layer - 1mm It also looks like you didn't remove the blossoms, is that okay? I thought removing the blossoms helps the cutting take root as most of its energy will go into rooting. Is that the case? Maybe it is different with the purple leaf sand cherry though. No, you're right, in fact I should go do that now - I left a few in the hustle of getting this all done quickly. Also, your cuttings appear to be about 5-6 inches tall when ready to be placed in the rooting medium. Is that correct? yup Would I be safe using sphagnum moss as well? I can purchase either perlite or sphagnum moss, just wondering which to get. Perlite will come in handy with potting soil as well though, so I may go with perlite, like you did. I find that its a whole lot easier to control the moisture level in perlite - as long as there is some sort of lid on it, it stays damp for weeks, wicks up moisture from the bottom as needed, but doesn't turn into a soggy mess. Lets air get down to the roots as well. I just find that much harder to manage with the moss and my cuttings rot far more easily. If I use a clear plastic bag, would that work too? I guess the downside of a plastic bag is that I'd need to have some fixture inside that keeps it from touching the leaves though. Sure, just put in some sticks to hold the bag up. Also, do you think I should get a different rooting hormone, or is my STIM-ROOT No. 1 rooting hormone (a pink powder) good enough? I'm sure that what you have is fine - its all the same active ingredient. Another few comments - if the leaves fall off, discard and start over. - when you start to see new top growth, thats a sign that things are going well. That should be at 4 to 6 weeks. - When you see that, its time to start taking off the plastic cover. Be careful - the environment is so humid under the plastic that the leaves adapt. If your ambient, room humidity is much drier, then when they're exposed, they'll wilt in a few hours. Needs a bit of TLC - remove for an hour, replace, next day two hours, etc. You may not need to worry about this, but I live in a desert, so its a major concern..... I live on the corner of two busy roads, so I've planted a sound/visual barrier with pine and ash trees, and under those, I have lots of shrubs, including a dozen or so sand cherry growing in the partial shade. I'd love to have more of them, but at this point, when I plant small things out, the trees pretty much steal all the sun, water, and nutrients.....

I'd look at one of the dwarf ninebarks, like Physocarpus 'Tiny Wine' or 'Little Devil'. Or a dwarf weigela - 'Fine Wine', 'Spilled Wine' or 'Midnight Wine' (makes me want to go pour a glass!!). While these may not remain as small as 2' feet, they are quite prunable. Far more so than a Japanese maple might be :-)