Hi everyone! I'd like to plant a Bloodgood this fall near a future patio addition. I want it to be close to the northern edge of my house so that it will get a lot of shade (albeit early afternoon shade in summer) and so that it will be close to my patio. I don't know how large Bloodgood's can get here in central Illinois, but based on what I've read it's not uncommon for them to get to 20' and higher.

I want my Bloodgood to maintain a bushy shape but wanted to plant it about 5 ft. from my house and ultimately get as large as 10'x10'. At this close range, I'm not sure that pruning is a realistic long-term solution. I was wondering if I could plant the Bloodgood into the ground with its current container still in place, only cutting the bottom out of the container to allow for drainage? Based on what I've read on container gardening, this sounds reasonable but I figured I'd throw it up on this forum and see what everyone thinks.