I have nothing to say about a Wisconsin climate but if you are in a somewhat arid area, you may want to rethink the katsura. This tree is not at all drought tolerant. They absolutely require supplemental irrigation in our dry summers. And I doubt a golden rain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) will be hardy enough for you or just marginally so.

I've seen on daves garden that Minnesota growers are doing Golden Rain Tree. That is a very similar climate. They get much more rain though, so I would need to supplement water.

Nate, I have mentioned before of coming across a large katsura in west Edmonton and the home owners also verifying it to be such. Have you ever noted any greenhouses in the Edmonton area offering this tree?

I was given a small chestnut tree that was grown from seed obtained from the US northern plains and will be interesting how the thing later fares. We definitely do not see the extreme and prolonged frigid cold as in the past and thus helping to advance the northern range of several species.

Nate:

I am in SE WI and true red maples (A. rubrum) can be a bit finicky for us to grow because of our high soil pH. In my area, Red Sunset has been nicknamed "Dead Sunset". It may be a winner further south but not here (not hardy).

Red maples seem to do well farther north in WI where the soils are more acidic . Lots of native red maples in those parts of WI. I recall one autumn driving North of Hayward,WI and hit the peak in color. The roadsides were ablaze in red. Just beautiful.

The best red maples in SE WI have been Morgan (originally from Quebec?), Autumn Radiance, Autumn Spire ect. Our problem is we sometimes get chlorotic leaves in summer because of our heavy clay alkaline soils. Not every year but some years they can have yellow leaves in August. We see this sometimes on river birch too so no big deal.

We grow Katsura at the nursery I work at. I too will second the comment gardengal makes on it. If we have a dry spell in summer, it must be watered!

Northwoods maple does not seem to color well for us in the southern part of WI. It may do better in Northern WI but definitely not the best choice for us in the southern part of the state.

That is the biggest issue on red maples. Cloned selections perform differently in different parts of the country. We do have some red maples native around here in wet sites that seem to do very well.

I am curious what soil type and pH you have where you are at? Just asking. I have never been to the Canadian prairie provinces but I have been many times to North Dakota and a lot of the soils there can be very high alkaline (not good for red maples). Perhaps the soils are different where you are at especially since you mentioned 'Northwoods' performs well in your area.

Ironically enough, alkaline soil problems are rarely an issue out here near the rocky mountains. We are directly north of Montana if you were interested. We actually have loads of different spots where the soil is actually very sandy and Jack Pines love to grow. I have never seen chlorosis out here but apparently Manitoba has issues.

I am currently growing Red Rocket Maple in my yard which came out of Minnesota. I'm pretty confident as they did tree trials of this tree across the prairies and found it was the only variety to hit perfect marks in every province. This is its first winter and its starting to get ready to flower. I was a little worried at how early that is but I think the flowers are alot hardier than if the leaves break. I see Autumn Spire around here as well but its massive hit or miss. It either grows perfectly or has dieback every couple winters.

What seemed to have come out of nowhere, starting tomorrow it looks to be a winter week of hell that sometimes creeps up out of nowhere in March. It was supposed to be above freezing all week and it randomly decided to change to highs of about -10c (12f) all week. I know this has happened before so I shouldn't worry. Supposed to get back to normal after that with all highs above freezing.

Interesting thing is that alot of our trees are grown up to container size in Kelowna, BC which is the peach/wine region listed as zone 7 not far from the Canadian coast. Every time I buy a tree from that area, they want to bud out a month earlier than what is normal here.

Last year was the first winter for my Crimson Sunset Maple and it started pushing out flowers in early March. Even though our march was warm, one cold morning burnt the flowers and they backed off. Luckily they started pushing again in early April and the tree looked great all summer. This year it isn't starting anywhere near as fast. They learn!