Good for you hortster! The redbuds in my area were absolutely fabulous this year. I almost hated to see the woods green up !and take away from the pretty pink and purple. We did have a late frost here on April 4 that killed all the leaves on the 4 redbuds in my yard but they are bouncing back very nicely.

Really, what is not to like?

"Really, what is not to like?"

Well of the thousands of mature/semi-mature C canadensis's that I see around here, about a third or more have significant branch failure (they are well known to suffer from poor branch attachments/weak crotches). I guess that's one of the contributing factors to them being a short-lived species. Their blooms are beautiful, but they sure aren't my first choice for a landscape tree. I do enjoy the many I have in my woods, where I don't care if a limb drops off or when an older one dies and is replaced by offspring.

If taken for their face value as a short lived ornamental, they have quite a bit of value. Kwanzaa cherry is also a worthy short lived ornamental with mucho appeal if put in a situation that meets its needs with replacement expected.

The 3 plain jane redbuds I planted are in my tree line of our woods and I planted 1 forest pansy redbud that I am hoping to get 10-15 years out of. I know I will have to replace them before I move, but for me it is worth it. Flowering redbud replacements are cheap and readily available everywhere I look. Though nothing is cheaper that digging one up in the woods. Our 8 acres are surrounded by redbuds and dogwoods but we don't have a single naturally in our woods, go figure.

There isn't a nicer redbud than Oklahoma Redbud. We saw some a few weeks ago that were a grape purple. Had we not already had one (very nice, but not as dark purple), one of them would have came home with us.

Arktrees

redbuds are like rabbits.. a couple are cute and fuzzy ...

and not unlike rabbits... the thousands of seedlings.. progeny.. can become problematic..

the upside of rabbits.. is they taste like chicken.. so i am told, anyway ...

the downside of redbuds.. is that they are a wood flavored roughage... rather unpalatable ...

so much for my wisdom for today ...

i think i have another 2 or 3 weeks before mine bloom ...

ken

Meh.
There's a time and place for every tree.
I think redbuds are useful for massing at woodland edges along road or driveways where the blooms could be appreciated and the liabilities go unnoticed.

I want to add that many of the selections of Redbuds are rated for more southern zones (i.e. 6 and above), so you have to wonder if that plays a role in the perception. I saw Sunrise a couples weeks ago, and the new peach color leaves were VERY attractive, but IIRC it's only rated to Zone 6. I know that's the case with the Oklahoma Redbud.

Arktrees

I have a young redbud that has just started flowering heavily in the past couple of years. Beautiful native tree, no reseeding here.

There's also a Cercis chinensis in the back yard that's very ornamental in spring.

Can't imagine grousing about redbuds.

fine! .... ignore my silliness ...

someone above spoke of time and place ....

here is some pix of mine [easstern redbud]... note how there isnt much else doing its thing..

this trees time is early spring ...

ken
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'Tis a harbringer of spring and things to come. Short lived, perhaps; prolific, in given years. As j0nd03 and ken summarized, they are beautiful and at at the same time can be a pest, but nonetheless are one of the inspiring awakenings. I have no ambivalence about mine. I LOVE redbuds.
hortster

I love redbuds, but unfortunately, they just don't seem to thrive very well in NE Ohio.

I'm in GA and I LOVE them too! Sure, they can go crazy, but the seedlings are easy to pull up.

They are gorgeous down here, with quite a long bloom time!

I love redbuds, too. Yesterday I finally ordered a 'Covey' redbud, a plant that I've been wanting for a really long time but never got around to buying one (mostly due to price). Love the weeping form and the pretty flowers in spring.

Karen

I agree - long bloom time for a tree. They're very common in yards around here and I never get tired of them. They do sometimes have interesting shapes but I think that's part of their appeal.
My first tree was a redbud from the Arbor Day thing they used to do (or maybe they still do) in third grade. The poor thing got mowed more than once when it was little and eaten by my horse and still came back. It lived almost 40 years. You can call that short-lived if you want. They don't get huge so they're not much trouble to remove when they do die.