Is there a purple-leafed tree other than a red maple that I can use to spice up my yard?
Fortunately, maples are not the only trees that come with purple leaves.
The purple-leafed varieties of smoke trees are compact and will easily fit in most front yards. They have distinctive roundish purple leaves and are named for the smokey “flowers” they produce each summer (actually inflorescences) which are often so voluminous it appears as though the tree is covered in a cloud of smoke, hence its name. One caution with this plant is that it tends not to take well to pruning, so situate it so that it has room to grow to its full height of approximately fifteen feet (with a slightly wider spread) and all will be well.
Another excellent choice is a cultivar of the eastern redbud known as 'Forest Pansy'. Like all redbuds, this small tree has black bark and heart-shaped leaves. It also bears small, brilliant pink flowers in early spring before its leaves have opened, creating a truly striking effect. When the leaves do finally appear, they start out as an eye-popping burgundy then fade to a more conservative shade of purple as the season progresses.
If you've got the space, purple beeches cannot be matched by any other shade tree for shear elegance. These stately trees are known for their incomparable silver-grey bark and graceful branching patterns. The purple-leafed varieties tend to start out deep red-purple in spring before fading to a muted purple (sometimes even to green) by mid-summer. They are huge trees, averaging sixty feet in height, but often attaining a hundred feet. Usually the only purple beeches you ever see outside of park settings are the weeping variety, which top out at about ten feet and are no less beautiful.
The Shubert chokecherry is another tree worth considering. It features purple leaves, attractive bark, and lots of small white flowers in May. Each spring, when the tree first leafs out, the new growth at the tip of the branches is a vibrant lime green in sharp contrast to the purple leaves that appear on the older growth. Eye-catching would be an understatement.
Purple-leafed flowering plums and purple-leafed crab apples are two small trees you often see in the landscape and their popularity defies explanation. I'm guessing people plant them primarily because they have purple leaves, but they also tend to be problem plagued and I'm not entirely certain their benefits outweigh the headaches they inevitably cause.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me at vanessa@gardenmuse.ca.
