Beeches, purple leaf plums and cherries, 'Forest Pansy' redbud, 'Royal Frost' birch, various crabapples. 'Evening Light' styrax and 'Red Fox' katsura start out red but green up in summer.

In the shrubbier category are sand cherries, smokebush, 'Red Majestic' contorted hazel, various elderberries, ninebarks........

I've been told by several nurseries I've visited that they don't carry any purple leaf plums or sand cherry. They said it had something to do with a virus they've been experiencing.

There's some interesting Ninebark's with autumn orange colors and one with very purple-ish leaves that I'm considering.

beech are ridiculously slow in MI .. imo ...

copper beach would be the common name ... color is variable.. but it might have to do with size ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=copper+beach+tree&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

proper name is Fagus sylvatica purpurea

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=Fagus+sylvatica+purpurea&iax=images&ia=images

in 20 years.. my 6 footer.. MIGHT BE 20 feet tall ...

of course there is the tricolor beech.. if you dont mind it doesnt have 3 colors.. lol .. and the white burns in august ... mine is a glorious pink tree right now .. even the asphalt sealer guy noticed ...

ken

What you have of course is the common one - the purple tricolor beech - and not the tricolor beech, which may even be extinct because it is so rare.

"I've been told by several nurseries I've visited that they don't carry any purple leaf plums or sand cherry. They said it had something to do with a virus they've been experiencing."

If it was going to be anything, it would be Black knot fungus.

Thanks all. I ended up with an "Emperor I" Japanese Maple. It was between that and a "Burgundy Hearts" redbud when we were at the nursery. I would have gone with the redbud, but I let DH choose, and he chose the JM. It's nice enough, but that redbud was really cool with the green-tinged burgundy leaves. Oh well.