Fagus Sylvatica Purpurea

Question...
I finally found and bought a nice batch of young purple beeches after looking for good ones for quite a while a while. You see a lot here in the wild, they contrast lovely in spring with the bright green beeches around them. Question for the forum though. I hear many different things, some say they don't differ in any other way from normal beech except the colour, some say they are more sensitive, grow a bit slower and slightly denser.

What is your experience/knowledge.
Do purple and normal beech differ and to what extent?

hi,
the ones i've seen grow the same, respond the same to pruning etc but just appear much darker inside due to the leaves blocking more light. To form an outer image tree just treat them the same, to form stronger inner growth i'd reduce the outer leaves more than usual- on a strong tree back to one or two terminal leaves, and then a probable leaf cut to reduce the size of each leaf further.

they

may have a tendancy to keep bigger leaves too - i had random ones in a group planting that were bigger

cheers Marcus

I suppose they're also more prone to leaf burn in the middle of summer with the darker leaves?

Bonsai Kas wrote:I suppose they're also more prone to leaf burn in the middle of summer with the darker leaves?

Very possibly but as all Beech have a tendency towards leaf margin and inter-veinal scorch you should probably just treat these with the same care your other Beeches receive. Mine are in shade by noon and come inside on gusty days.

I collected a group of F. sylvatica seeds (both from green and purple Beech) from a local arboretum last fall, planted them over winter, and enjoyed excellent germination. So far the purpurea are outgrowing the regular green leafs. One seedling actually has green and purple bisected on the same leaf, which is just too cool!

-Jay

[quote="drgonzo"]

Bonsai Kas wrote:One seedling actually has green and purple bisected on the same leaf, which is just too cool!

Nice . I think the mutation is quite common. In the wild here you see that around 5/10% of all beeches are red ones, I do have to say they're usually a bit smaller than the normal green ones around them

In theory they are similar to the red leafed maples and are a bit weaker than the green ones. Im growing some of them in the back yard in pots for bonsai - i got them from a hedging nursery bare root during the winter. Repotted the first one into a bonsai pot this year as the buds were extending - very easy and successful. They put on trunk diameter quite a bit faster than oaks and hawthorns - even my purple ones. So my experience over the last 4 years with copper beech is that they are tough and easy to work with - as well as quite fast growing.

I don't find any different between green beech and this variety. That said you get some variation between beeches of the same variety anyway!

This one belongs to a mate, makes a rather nice bonsai I think.


Josh's Garden May 2012 by Bonsai eejit, on Flickr

More of his beech here: Josh's Bonsai

That is a beauty Ian!