When we first got our little maple tree, we realized right away we needed to protect it from the wind and sun. Were in the Prescott area in AZ and the winds here seem to suck the moisture right out of the leaves in the spring and summer. We constructed a sun screen around it, and it seemed to do quite well, and also weathered the winter without problem. This summer it grew quite a bit, and we felt comfortable enough to reduce the sun screen protection by half. We love our little tree and feel it was from really hardy stock to survive in our environment. I might also add that we did little to amend the soil here, which is largely decomposed granite, and its still doing very well.