'Fox Valley' is also known as 'Little King' because it was first discovered and introduced into the trade in the 1970's by Jim King who owned King Nursery in Montgomery, Illinois. That nursery was large and grew a huge variety of different woody plant species and cultivars, and it has moved farther southwest to nearby Oswego, IL, along Highway 34. Chicagoland Grows, an organization of nurseries and arboretums, embraced it in 1991 as a registered cultivar, calling it 'Fox Valley.' It is available at some larger nurseries in the Midwest or the East USA. It is a compact selection that only grows about 10 to 20 feet high and is dense, bushy in form. It can be easily pruned up to expose the pretty trunks of cinnamon-colored peeling bark. Much of the literature speaks of it as only 8 to 10 feet high, but give any dwarf or compact cultivar time, they will grow larger than what nurseries say they will. In time it seems to also become more upright and dropping lower branches. Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL, recommends that this selection is good for USDA Zones 4 to 6, but some other sources say down to Zone 9, but that is definite for the species, not sure of this cultivar.

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