Prunus and Cornus are of course genera and not families. The main purple-leaved hardy trees are maples, birches, catalpa, beech, crabapples, plums, cherries and oaks. The most development of newer, better kinds will be among the flowering crabapples. There might be some potential for you there.

Most variegated forms encountered will be maples, dogwoods, beech, sweetgums or the 'Aureomarginatum' tulip poplar. The latter certainly makes a dramatic statement when the coloration is at its seasonal peak, but does not maintain clearly distinct variegation the whole summer.

Are you counting some of the Japanese Maple cultivars like Bloodgood, Emperor I & Fireglow? What about the more bush/shrub like forms like Crimson Queen, Red Dragon & Tamukeyama? These are all rather red to purplish, depending on your tastes & the individual plant. From what I understand some stand up well over summer, albeit depending on conditions can green up a bit. I've had a couple of Bloodgoods going on a year, & an Emperor I I planted last Fall.

What size tree are you looking for? I've been tempted by Velvet Cloak Smoke Trees at the nurseries, but don't recall a lot about them.

Richard.

JM is definitely a consideration. I have a spot for either Fire Glow or Emperor 1 (to replace a purple sandcherry)h that offers protection from north/west winds and afternoon shade. I was considering a smoke tree but I thought of them as having a poor winter silouette.

I'd say I was going down the direction bboy is eluding to, more hardy selections, for me, meaning wind and sun aren't much of an issue.

I found the 'Aureomarginatum' tulip poplar at Forest Farm but they are listing it at zone 6.

Any other particular selections and sources for purchase? I can definitly track them down but I'm trying to get feedback on people actually growing them. I almost purchased a variegated norway maple but I quickly found out they tend to revert more often than not.

I recently added a Wolf Eyes dogwood and I wanted to continue adding various purple leafed and variegated trees. Prarie Fire crabapple seems to be a good performer in my area but they tend to have a more bronzy look as the season progresses.

hey

any of the foo foo dogwood are questionable in my z5 .... in my experience anyway ...

the riversii beech is very slow growing very dark .... and very nice ...

you know my feelings on the tricolor beech ...

purple plum is nice color.. if you can ignore all its other problems ....

ya know.. frankly.. your quest for a perfect year round tree is near impossible .. IMHO ...almost all trees have their glory season .. and then for one reason or another.. start declining ... i am having a hard time with your demand that it be perfect and glorious the entire season.. everything i have.. that you list.. looks ratty sooner or later ... except maybe the copper beech ... but even that tends to have a dark color that is variable by year ...

your collection should be large enough now.. that you should become a little more zen in your approach .... and plant things that have a 'season' .. and when it looks ratty.. you have others plants.. with other seasons ...

e.g. should i get rid of all my iris.. because they only bloom for a week or two.. and look crumby the rest of the summer.. NOT!!! ... so why would trees or shrub choice be any different ????

ken

You definitly make a good point. With that said I should clarify what I mean by "ratty". For example the Iris to your point blooms for a week or two, but for "most" of the season it still provides texture and blue green color contrast, then it naturally declines later in the season.

Getting back to "ratty", I refer to that term as stress decline in which its health is effected (think aesculus). For example it scorches or defoliates. And for variegation I just don't don't want to go down the road with a tree that has a high chance of reversion.

In the end if it doesn't maintain its "color" all year...I am plenty fine with that.

I still have the tricolor beech on my list. Sounds like I should add riversii beech to the list as well.

What about all the variegated trees you have?

I have a very nice variegated sweetgum. It looks good all seasons.

I would love to try both the variegated sweetgum and tuliptree but those are both listed to zone 6.

USDA 5 would also be expected to be marginal for Japanese maples. Any collections in the same zone you can visit, for inspiration?

It might come down to that. I haven't been to the Madison arb and I believe that is zone 4...curious to see what they have. Although its zone 5b I'm going to check out the Chicago Botanical Garden later in the season.

North of here I was shocked to see a 20' or so variegated maple...I was driving by but I suspect it was a norway. It looked quite stunning in part sun with larger trees as the back drop.