Where in AZ are you located? Would you be willing to ship in-state, if fees are paid? Have been hoping to acquire these for some time.

from personal experience with African Sumacs (I had 7 in my backyard... slowly replacing some of them) My opinion is this: The chance of an established African Sumac going down in the wind or because of being "off balance" is pretty close to ZERO. Yes maybe if it's a fairly young one and maybe if it was watered often and shallow, but I have established ones that are a good 20+ years old, and they are incredibly strong. The wood is one of the toughest out there. The wind is NOT going to break branches. and the roots are super strong as well. I just took several weeks to dig up one of them, and after digging down 3 feet all around this tree and chopping roots one at a time, I was finally able to pull it down little by little with my car, but it did not come down until I cut the last root with the chainsaw. I have one that is leaning heavily to one side... it just grew crooked (whoever lived here before let it grow that way) and it is still rock solid. African sumacs are no sissoo or silly little "paloverde" trees (those are the ones you always see snapped after storms). I have yet to see one damaged by the wind. Sorry I'm so opinionated, but I've cut and pulled out a lot of trees, and these are among the strongest.

What litter? The leaves are so small. Do you have lawn? The "litter" mulches very well with a mower. Let it lie where it falls from the mower. It is easy to sweep and pick up on the patio and throw it on the lawm to mulch with the mower. This tree is VERY forgiving of bad pruning, butchering. You can cut it back to fence posts and start over. Rhus lancea is also fire retardant and drought resistant. This is a beautiful weeping tree. Pruning should be for thinning and shaping and to remove any dead branches. Happy gardening

Our Sumac tree is single trunk and newly planted back in Dec. It looked fine until the first wind storm when it lost most of it's leaves with only the many seeds left and a few leaves on the branch ends. It has appeared to be slowly dying ever since with a couple of branches brown and brittle. The others are not that way but there is no sign of any new growth anywhere. It was a large tree in a 36inch container when we planted it. We are in the Las Vegas area and we did have a few 32 degree nights after it was planted. Is it dying back? Does it need some pruning? Should we just start over with a new tree?