"I understand there are 90 foot copper beeches someplace in Europe"

There's one 33 metres tall in Britain.

Tallest yellow-foliage tree in Britain is Cupressus macrocarpa 'Lutea', also 33m. Tallest variegated tree in Britain is Thuja plicata 'Zebrina', 28m. Sorry, no pics of them!

Resin

Thanks Resin. You outperformed google! Do you know if either is in a public garden or are they in private collections?

A variegated Liriodendron in Coquitlam, BC was measured as being 80' tall in 1992. To check for similar records of other kinds of trees you mentioned here look in Jacobson, North American Landscape Trees (1996, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley).

Here is a link that might be useful: Riverview Arboretum

I've seen large variegated sweetgums around - maybe 20 m tall or so. Also, a Populus nigra 'Lombardy Gold' and Populus x canadensis 'Serotina Aurea' that are huge. One 'Serotina Aurea' I photographed in Manitoba was something like 40 m tall.

"Do you know if either is in a public garden or are they in private collections?"

The cypress is in Castlewellan Arboretum, Co. Down, Northern Ireland (public); the thuja at Stourhead in Wiltshire, England (National Trust, open to public). The beech is in a private garden.

Resin

I gave this Thuja plicata, 'Zebrina' to my neighbor when it was small. I didn't like it then, but as it grew the color looked a lot better. He gave me a cutting from this tree a few years ago and it's over thirty feet tall now.
Mike
{{gwi:325575}}

Looks like the stronger yellow type with the yellow tending to be concentrated more on the outside, rather than the more strictly defined 'Zebrina' with lighter yellow more evenly dispersed throughout.

The plant grown in Britain as 'Zebrina Extra Gold' may be very similar to the one seen here like yours. Yellow branch sports of western redcedar are pretty common here, multiple named forms have been introduced. I don't know how many of these are based on branch sports and how many are seedling variants. But I've seen way more yellow foliage sections on western redcedar than any other kind of variations in local conifers.

Mike that is a good picture. Thank you and the rest for the examples.

For the longest time I doubted any of the off color foliaged trees grew to the size of their main species. Turns out I just had not seen any so I did not believe it. Makes me feel better about the long term prospects of the ones I have planted.

Thanks again.

"For the longest time I doubted any of the off color foliaged trees grew to the size of their main species"

They don't. The wild-types do get larger, and grow faster. Not too surprising, as the normal green ones have more efficient photosynthesis.

For the ones I mentioned above, the tallest Fagus sylvatica here is 43m, the tallest Cupressus macrocarpa 42m, and the tallest Thuja plicata 47m.

Resin

Purple beech (including 'Purpurea Tricolor') grow quite large here as do purple and yellow-variegated forms of sycamore maple. This last tree, however is rare in my area. Large 'Zebrina' western redcedar are dotted about, these appear to have a tendency to produce a broader specimen than typical. The biggest (total volume) one I've measured (65' X 13'7" X 40', 1992) was in Greenwood Cemetary, Renton WA. Maybe it's still there.

I zeroed in on this tree but completely overlooked the Hendrix marker.

Some taller ones from Van Pelt, Champion Trees of Washington State (1996, University of Washington, Seattle) include:

Cedrus deodara 'Aurea' 87' 1993 Vancouver
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Lutea' 76' 1993 Snohomish
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Stewartii' 80' 1993 Bremerton
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Westermanii' 67' 1995 Tacoma
Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Aurea' 66' 1992 Seattle
Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Plumosa Aurea' 75' 1992 Tacoma
Fagus sylvatica 'Purpurea Tricolor' 73' 1995 Brinnon
Liquidambar sytraciflua 'Variegata' 66' 1995 Seattle
Populus X canadensis 'Serotina Aurea' 99' 1992 Puyallup
Robina pseudoacacia 'Frisia' 72' 1992 Auburn
Thuja plicata 'Zebrina' 76' 1993 Olympia

A nice list. I went to look up that book on Amazon or Ebay and found it to still be going for quite a bit of money!

Not bad for a fifteen year old book. More than the new Dirr book I am stalking lol.