Hi Mississippi Coast here. Zone 8b. I planted a bare root sugar maple a number of years ago. For the 1st few years it hardly grew. Then started growing well. I'm not sure if it has survived Katrina yet. But other than that it was doing well. (I have sandy soil.) I'm not sure if the fall colors are as good as one would expect. But it does/did have nice color. Hope this helps.

Plant a swamp red maple (Acer rubrum var. drummandii L.) instead.

Here is a link that might be useful: Swamp Red Maple

...that may be what you dug up. ;)

That is what I dug up...I have a leaf from it sitting right here in front of me on the computer table!

I didn't plant it in full sun, though, because I've always seen it growing under other trees on the side of the road. It is under a very tall pine tree right at the edge of a clearing. It remains to be seen how it will do.

I am researching the "Legacy" variety of acer saccharum right now...I read the other day in my research that it is supposed to be more heat tolerant.

Thanks to you both for your input, and I would still love to hear anything else anyone has to say about it. :-)

Investigate the traits of the southern sugar maple, acer barbatum and the chalk maple, acer leucoderm. Marvelous trees with a buttery fall color and beautiful habit, although my southern sugar maples are not coloring up very much this year.

Pterostyrax, a chalk maple was one of my purchases at Hilltop's fall sale. It's small now, but one day it'll be a beauty.

There are several red maple cultivars that are listed as z8- I think they are crosses with the Swamp Maple- Autumn Flame and October Glory are two.

Found this on the web and thought I would pass it along:

Of the nonornamental native trees, the most deserving of the skull-and-crossbones warning are those that produce cyanide in their wilted leaves. Cyanide suffocates animals by blocking oxygen transport via the red blood cells. The red maple (Acer rubrum) is one such tree whose leaves are harmless most of the year until wind damage or seasonal change causes them to fall from the tree and wilt. Red maple leaves have serrated edges and can turn either red or yellow in the fall. "There are other trees that shed red leaves in the fall, but the red maple has some distinctive features," says Anthony Knight, BVSc, MRCVS, who specializes in toxic trees and plants at Colorado State University. "The underside of the red maple leaf tends to be silvery in color." Signs of poisoning, including lethargy, discolored urine and darkened gums, may not appear for four days.

Equally toxic are cherry (black cherry, chokecherry, and fire cherry) peach and plum trees, all members of the Prunus species. These leaves also produce cyanide when wilted, affecting horses within a few hours of ingestion.

Yew (taxus sp.) and Oleander (nerium oleander)are also poisonous.