Red Fox Katsura Tree - Bought At Morton Arboretum - September 2020

At the Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale, they had a series of trees for sale including some shade and fruit trees as well as large trees and 'understory trees'.  You know that I can't go to a nursery with a tree sale and not come home with a tree for our yard.  I couldn't decide what tree to buy (I was considering an Ironwood tree), but I asked the staff at the Arboretum which tree they liked the best and BOTH of the arborists that I asked pointed me toward a set of trees that had the fewest there.  There were just three of these Red Fox Katsura trees, but both arborists told me that this was the tree that they'd bring home.  You can see the price above ($24), so it isn't a budget buster.

The description from the sign reads:  

A purple-leaved selection of the Katsura tree, this specimen has a narrow upright, columnar growth habit and is relatively low maintenance.  

Columnar?  Check.  Red?  Check.  And, turns out...it is Japanese.  So, check.  

Below is the tag that came in the container.  This is just a two year old tree, so it is very tall and skinny without many branches.  The tag says that the tree gets 40-60' tall and 25-40' spread.

The leaves of this tree are really quite neat:  they have purplish branching and a dark green, heart-shaped, almost leathery-y feeling.  

The back of the leaves are light green but are very vein-y.  

I'm going to plant this as a replacement for one of our Flowering Pear trees outside of our garage.  That columnar shape is something that I've been lusting after for a while - and you can see one of these trees that has matured more than mine in the photo below from Oakland Nursery:

Photo (above) via Oakland Nursery.  Source.  This is NOT my photo.

I'll get it in the ground and then count in via the official tree tally - which I think this will make the 17th tree planted this year.

2020 Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale Posts:

• A pair of Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses destined for outside our screened porch
• A unique, ruffled hosta named Waterslide
• An upright and narrow hosta - Praying Hands Hosta
• A Japanese grass that I've lusted after finally was added to our yard - the All Gold Grass.
• A lacy backdrop plant - the Chocoholic Black Snakeroot - that was new to me. 
• Companion plants to the All Gold forest grasses - these dark red Coral Bells (DOLCE Cherry Truffles) are very heavy on the ruffles.  
• A trio of Japanese Sedges (Evercolor) that I planted adjacent to our Japanese flowering Cherry tree.  
• The only tree I bought - a Red Fox Katsura tree that is columanar and Japanese.