Seiryu is a small upright dissectum Japanese maple. It has lacy delicate leaves and is a small tree. It has red tints to the spring foliage and a red fall color. I really like mine.

Here is a cut and paste link to my favorite maple
Acer j. 'Aconitifolium'
http://public.fotki.com/BambooMary/my_green_house/my_garden/20051011222552/dscn3510.html

Some years the leaf colors are purple yellow orange and red. Hard to beat it forcolor and the summer green leaf is also very nice. I can't say enough good things about this tree!

'Ukigumo'-aka Floating Cloud Japanese Maple
Small, almost white variegated leaf early in the year. Not great fall color, but very airy and elegant the rest of the year. Stays small, maybe 10-15 feet

I agree with geostv about Ukigumos! I have two of them. If you can keep the hot summer sun off them in the afternoon they are wonderful. I am now starting to get a bit of annoying reversion which I try to keep cut out. They have been in the ground now for about nine years.

By now, I am getting very confused! I had settled (in my mind) on Ukigumos.... but it will be located on a very warm and sunny small, sheltered patio..... so I guess that won't do. I maybe should go back to "Actinifolium"... what do you think?

Sorry for getting you confused. It is hard to watch the Ukigumos get fried. I had one of mine in a perfect location than I had a large tree removed and it got way too much sun. OUCH. I was going to add another tree to your list but I remembered that you want color....... The 'Actinifoliums'
are really nice.

Could we be referring to Acer japonicum 'Aconitifolium'? A gorgeous tree, one of my favorites, but with maturity will develop quite a broad, spreading canopy. I was under the assumption you had limited space available - planting space is one thing, clearance for the mature tree is another.

And yes, while most of the variegated forms of Japanese maples tend to be smaller scaled, somewhat compact trees, they will be happiest in at least afternoon shade, if not dappled or filtered shade all day.

What about a weeping tricolor beech? thinking outside the box here. Eventually they get huge but not in one person's life time - or two - possibly three people's life times. Tend to be very narrow weepers for decades. Purple, green and white foliage. I would think they're much more sun tolerant than your typical colored japanese maple.

Now that's an interesting thought? But I want very little shade from the tree, that's why I thought a maple would be "lacier". Do you have any idea of the latin name for the particular beech you have in mind? Since I am already over 70, I think the growth in two or three lifetimes is not a problem!

Believe it's Fagus sylvatica 'Tricolor', guess the tricolor isn't actually a weeper but I've never seen them get big. I have F sylvatica 'Purpurea Pendula' which are the weeping copper beeches - gorgeous. Narrow too. Just dug one up today to give to a friend and it was 7' tall after 6 yrs in the ground from a 15 gal. and only about 2' wide. They don't cast any shade to speak of, any more than a pole would!

You're describing Fagus sylvatica 'Purple Fountain'. F. sylvatica 'Purpurea Pendula' is low and broad, unless trained up.

The common variegated beech is F. sylvatica 'Purpurea Tricolor' (F. sylvatica 'Roseomarginata'). It forms a medium-large tree. One in France was 100 feet tall some years ago. F. sylvatica 'Tricolor' is (was?) not purple.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cultivars of European Beech

I've become quite fond of a cultivar called Shigure Bato,
which is a small upright which you can prune as desired--it probably tops out at around 8 or 10 feet depending on location. It leafs out in bright yellow green in spring, maintains a green with reddish markings throughout the growing season, has late, orangish fall foliage, and has the bright-red twiggy branchlets in the winter (a poor-man's and minitiure coral bark maple.

Another thought, if you are looking for upright, slender, airy would be one of the willow leaf types, like Koto no Ito, Red Pygmy, Scolopendrifolium. They all are quite sun tolerant.

Thanks for the last comment..... as it happens, I have just acquired a "Red Pigmy" maple..... so it seems I have (for once!) done the right thing!

>so it seems I have (for once!) done the right thing!You put Brit.Col. instead of B.C. in your byline so we would know it didn't stand for "Bad Choices"?

re the last comment..... If you live in Brit. Col. you NEVER make a mistake!

We got a Floating Cloud JM last summer and put it in a large pot right next to our back door, where it is doing very well and looks great - except that there has never been any pink anywhere on the leaves, even in spring. (The leaves do show faint white variation though.) Do these trees need some sun to show the pink (which it did have in the nursery when we bought it)?

It's on our patio, which has a 40 year old once-clear corrugated plastic roof overhead, and sides open to the north and the east, but since the container is in the back of the patio (next to the house) it only gets filtered sun and no direct sun at all, even in the morning. (I tried some chinodoxa bulbs in the same pot and they just leaned out of the pot, desperately seeking more sun!)

Do I have to move the pot closer to the eastern edge of the patio (where the morning sun would reach it directly) in order to get the pink? It otherwise looks so perfect next to the back door with its leaves and branches against the brick behind it, but I'd really love to see the whole colorful show.

Also, are there are other JM varieties that would be suitable for a container in this back-of-the-patio situation? Our other JM - a Baldsmith - has great color, but it's on the eastern edge of the patio and not against the house. Does shade pretty much mean not much color?

I have an Acer palmatum 'Butterfly' which has lovely delicate white variegated leaves and nice yellow fall color and is less than 7' tall after 10 years. Would be great in a pot. Mine does get afternoon shade and has never sunburned.