Red maple/red mulch also available at wally. With the Stella's it will be perfect.

I have seen yellow Barberry's planted with red maples, which I think looks stunning.

inkognito, do I detect a bit of sarcasm? I am not a serious gardener, I don't have the time or the money, but I try to make things look nice where I can, even if it is with very common plants. The nice thing about common plant varieties is that they're inexpensive and usually pretty hardy.
Mary, I'd never thought of barberrys- they should discourage the dogs a bit, and they grow fairly quickly, too, right? I'll have to see what's available locally.

Barberry, while it can be lovely, is very problematic and invasive in native woodlands. I was at the nursery last week and saw some stunning low growing junipers, I think some of them were yellow tinged. I have goldmound spirea with my red japanese maple, I think that looks good. Also azaleas. And I agree, sometimes it pays to keep it simple and hardy. I like the look of maples with evergreens, and juniper might be spikey enough to keep out the dogs. Can also be mixed with day lilies in clumps.

I have a bloodgood JM flanked by golden barberry. I find the contrast in colors, texture and shape to be very appealing. Blues also contrast very nicely with JMs--such as blue star juniper, which only get a couple of feet high and wide and keep their blue color. I have blue rug juniper, which is very low growing--but it has turned more green than blue with age and doesn't compliment the red of a JM quite as well.

What type of Japanese maple did you purchase? It is a weeper or an upright one? Some of them can get pretty big. It seems like you would want to start by making your bed deeper than 4'. I have been debating about what to plant in a bed with a few very nice Crimson Queen maples. The current plan calls for a grouping of Black Eyed Stella daylilies, a couple Sedums and maybe a small Japanese Holly.

Ink...if I go for the red mulch do you think I should get the brand with built in termite and weed control as well? ;-) It is getting hard these days to find plain old mulch...same with potting soil.

- Brent

The variety I got was "acer palmatum atropurpureum". Not weeping. I would have loved a weeping Cherry, but wilted Cherry leaves are highly toxic to horses, and I didn't want to take any chances. The tag says 18' x 18' at maturity, but I figure it'll take a while to get big, and I can always prune! The sidewalls on the barn are 12', and I planted the tree towards the outside corner- so I have a bit of room. Very interesting about the blue rug junipers being too green to compliment the red leaves, and a "bluer" juniper looking better. I certainly wouldn't have ever thought of that. I hope to get out this weekend to see what I can find in the way of complimentary plants, and all of your suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Take a look at this link:
http://www.oregongarden.org/WYS_specialty_Conifer.html

The picture at the bottom of the page showing a JM between a blue spruce and what looks like a globe blue spruce. IMHO, the blue of the spruce really brings out the vivid red of the JM.