Tested in the US National Elm Trial coordinated by Colorado State University, [1]Vanguard averaged a survival rate of 78% after 10 years.
[1] Vanguard has modest upright growth, increasing in height by an average of 0.8 m in an assessment at U C Davis,[2] with leaves much the same size and colour of the American Elm.
[2] However, its performance in the southern United States has not impressed, and it was dismissed, along with its Morton stablemates Commendation and Triumph, as "ugly" by Michael Dirr, Professor of Horticulture at the University of Georgia [3], on account of its "wild" growth and splaying branches.
In trials at the University of Minnesota, Vanguard was found to have the second highest (after Danada Charm) incidence of branch breakage occasioned by bark inclusions.
Vanguard was crossed with the hybrid cultivar Accolade; a selection from the resultant seedlings was marketed under the name 'Charisma', later changed to 'Morton Glossy' = Triumph.