All weeping laceleaf maples slow, many do not build height much at all unless staked. Shade should be good esp. in your climate. Zone 4 is definitely pushing it, hope this spot is sheltered from cold winter winds by hedging or taller trees.

Here is a link that might be useful: Myth of Uniform Plant Performance

If I were you I'd plant it to receive some sun since sunlight will definitely give it warmth and as I understand it brings out the red color more.

In my zone 5a location my laceleaf Maple--a Crimson Queen has done well getting a good dose of afternoon sun (approx.4hrs). The only thing I've had to be mindful of is watering it every other or every third day during hot summer months.

My CQ is also sheltered by other trees from cold winter winds--an absolute must as I understand it for colder climates like mine. I know of a lady whose ten year old JM died due to overexposure from wind funneled between two houses.

Or the minimum temperature was just too low for it anyway. It only takes a few hours of cold below a plant's tolerance range to do it in. With their unnaturally slender leaf divisions laceleaf maples particularly have a problem with cold damaging the unfolding leaves in spring, I have seen this on an exposed nursery site even here in Zone 8. Another thing I have seen here is purpleleaf Japanese maples turning into paper bags in hot positions during summer. That is why numerous grower catalogs promote this variety and that variety as having good color retention ("stays a good purple all summer"). We have low summer temperatures here but the humidity also drops--as it would in Idaho, part of the same western half of the country as us with a climate regime that includes precipitation being concentrated in winter and falling off markedly, some places completely in summer.

The dreaded greening out of shaded purpleleaf specimens consists of the leaves becoming partly green in the darkest parts of the tree, with the parts remaining purple remaining a good purple. This is much more digestible than the overall fading and scorching of those getting full sun in an area that is not humid enough to keep them looking good. Area in this case can just be the difference between a heavily watered property with a "hydroponic" lawn that gives off cooling water vapor all day and one that is allowed to become hot.

I'm planting some more JM's near the CQ, but am concerned about exactly what you describe a few meters to the left of it where there is at least a six hour sun exposure. It seems like a four, or in my case of the new JM, three and a half hours of afternoon sun isn't bad (with another one hour of dappled sun filtering through a shade tree--a big sugar maple).

One Bloodgood died there two years ago, but I can't figure out if it was too much sun, drying out in winter winds, or a weed killer that accedentally got on it!! At that time I was brutal to trees. I never hardly watered even during droughts...

I forgot to ask you bboy are you sure that a tree can die after a couple hours under the rated cold limit? Does this mean that if it gets to -25 degrees F. for a day all my JM's die that are rated to -20?

This just does not seem correct. Of course lately (last few winters) this area has not seen any temp. going down past -15 degrees but the windchill has been easily past -25 degrees on those days. One winter it was -25 for two days and the windchill was down to -50 degrees!! I've never seen a repeat of this for the past 14 years or so. But it does get to single digits both above and below 0 for a week at a time in January and those days the windchill gets down to -20 degrees.

Roots die after one too cold night, anyway. Normally these are in the ground, so it doesn't get as cold where they are as readily as if they are being overwintered in a pot. This is where it is most noticeable that roots are comparatively tender.

This past spring we had a red lace leaf maple planted by a reputable landscape company. Although the tree seems to be thriving, its foliage has turned green. We were told that is not unusual and it will return to red. Is this true; if not, what did we do to cause this & if it is true, how long does it normally take to return to the beautiful RED lace leaf we wanted when we purchased the tree

Just so you know, 'Red Select' (aka 'Select Red') is the same as 'Inaba Shidare'.