we moved into our home late in the fall in '05. we were anxious to start planting early this spring in our open canvas yard. we purchased a nice sized redbud tree and planted on the side of our home. there were no signs of foliage when we purchased...but figured that all it needed was warm sun and spring rain. it is now the 10th of june and still no sign of budding out. if i scratch the surface on the branches there is green. any suggestions to help jump-start our redbud?

We are in our third season with our seedling.It is now six feet tall,and full of foliage.Our problem is we have not had any budding in the spring.When can we expect to see some color? Thanks

I had some redbud trees that something was eating the leaves. I could not find anything on, around or under the leaves or anything around the base which is bare dirt.No traces of anything that could be doing this. I even went out at night with a flashlight and was not able to find the source. All but one died and it is about 4 feet tall. It's leaves are still being eaten. As soon as a new leave appears big chunks from the leaves are gone. Some have nothing left but the middle stem? I have a chance to get more but if this is going to happen to them why bother. I hope someone can clue me in on what is going on.

We planted a redbud 3 years ago--and it was not inexpensive; locally grown at a nursury. As long as we watered it through the first year or two it was fine--and bloomed. We moved to a partially wooded yard, and were please to have an old redbud in front, and thrilled to find a 10 foot one that grew naturally in the woods outside our porch (I'm sure we'll discover more in the woods). The old one has many crossed branches that have even grown together--so I think pruning out the criss-crossing branches earlier is a good idea.

Tonkas: Your redbud should be old enough to form buds now. Blooming is determined by the amount of winter cold it gets. The more cold, the better the show. If you live in a mild-winter area, you may not consistantly get a good show. In most cases, blooming is a year-by-year issue. Some years are better than others.
Scott

We have a ton of bumble bees on the flowers of our 5 yr redbud, what should we do??

harrisfree, nothing. Bumble bees are good.

Hi. I'm in NW Tenn. We planted a redbud tree 2 years ago and it is now about 10ft tall. It appears healthy and always has good foliage, but has not yet flowered. The redbuds in our area are all in bloom now. Does it take awhile after a redbud is planted to bloom? Or is there something else it needs?. During the summer, it does get morning and some mid-day sun, but more shade in the afternoon. Thanks....

Planted three new redbud trees last fall. They bloomed and leafed out over the past few weeks. Last week we had frost, and today I see that the leaves have turned black! Is it from the frost? Will the tree survive and grow new leaves?

Thanks!

I wish I could help you all, but I need help myself. See back in March I transplanted my redbud, and so far only half of the tree is producing leaves. I can't quit tell if the other half is dead, but the main truck is still alive. Any input as to what is going on here?

Same problem as debi 01 except that I live in Maryland. My 3 year old redbud appears healthy, but has very few blooms this year. Others in the area look fine. What's wrong with mine?

I live in New Mexico. My Redbud is ~3 yrs old and has been doing well. But suddenly it has red/rust colored spots on all the leaves and they look like they are dying. We've had really hot temps lately and have started getting some rain. I've watered it deeply once a week all this time, but now somethng is wrong. Any ideas? Thanks for help :)

A windstorm broke my redbud tree off about 2 feet above ground and I pruned it just below the break. Will it ever come back to life.

Everyone should know that redbuds are understory trees and only want shade to part sun. If your plant is getting full sun, especially in hot weather, that's problematic. Second, redbuds are succeptible to verticullum wilt, a soil disease: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1164.html

Odie, if your redbud has had a chance to get established for at least a season or two, it should send up new growth and may recover. All you can do is wait and see.

We planted a redbud in the fall...we had an early freeze before the leaves fell off. It is now May 22 and there is NOTHING on our tree. I did a scratch test and it looks green...but nothing is happening. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks,
Rachel

We planted a redbud in the fall...we had an early freeze before the leaves fell off. It is now May 22 and there is NOTHING on our tree. I did a scratch test and it looks green...but nothing is happening. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks,
Rachel

I have a redud tree that has been healthy for about seven years, when it was planted when my house was landscaped. It appears to be in shock now and has not sprouted its new foliage. We had a heat wave in early spring here in Southern California maybee a month ago - while the tree was flowering. The flowers have shriveled up on the tree but no leaves have grown. Has anyone else experienced this and is there any advise you can offer?

I am in zone 6-6a here in Pennsylvania, and Redbuds are native here. Their natural area of growth is not that large.

Anyone with a Redbud who wants to provide optimum conditions for their trees should check out the growing conditions in Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas. We rarely have temps below zero degrees Fahrenheight in my area of the state, and we get quite a bit of rainfall. Summers rarely top a hundred degrees.

If your conditions are colder in winter, your Redbud should be grown in a protected position.

If your conditions are hotter or sunnier, your Redbud will definitely need to be grown as an understory tree. Even in my area, they look happier grown that way.

If your conditions are significantly drier, you will need to water regularly.

The Redbud will gradually sew itself around into untrafficed spots or garden soil. I believe this is done by squirrels. Something is eating the seeds, because the large pods always disappear.

After blooming pretty good earlier this Spring, the flowers on my redbud have shriveled and no leaves have grown. I live in Norther California (Sacramento area) and we had a weird Spring...early warm temps followed by some windy, cold, rainy weather. Just today I noticed a number of places on the trunk where water appears to be weeping. I got close but didn't notice any large holes or other defects in the bark.

The tree is about 3 years old (at least it was planted in my yard about 3 years ago).

Any help, comments or advice would be sincerely appreciated.

The tree is about 3 years old.

Our Redbud trees are heavy with seed pods. We don't remember this happening before. Some of the Redbuds are over ten years old. What are the trees trying to tell us?

My Redbud is about 9 - 10 years old. It is beautiful and blooms every year but it is very heavy with seed pods that doesn't seem to fall off, should we pull them off? Does it help or hurt the tree either way?

I too have the problems Paul and Edwina are describing...a mature Redbud roughly 20 ft tall that is simply covered in a multitude of seedpods that have endured since last fall. It's May now and they are still there. Blooms were terrible this year too. The tree has always been a show-stopper, but this year really failed to produce. As they both asked, "What is the tree telling us" and "What should we do to maintain this treasure of a tree?"

Personally speaking, mine is in full sun and has always thrived. We live in the Bluegrass growing region and thus, have outstanding soil conditions which have no doubt given us an advantage year over year. But I suspect that a mild drought last fall, coupled with years of age and a lack of overstory protection may be killing the tree slowly. Anyone have suggestions? Can I (*should I) consider pulling the pods off the tree and trying to grow them as a replacement nature will soon command? If so, what tips have you...anyone?

Thanks for your help as this is my favorite of 50+ trees in our landscape.

My redbud tree this year was very sparse with blooms only on the top 1/3 of the tree and then very few blooms.

We had a Redbud planted lastg year and now only one side of the tree is Blooming. I did a scratch test on the other side a well as bend some of the new growth and I dont see green and the brittle branches break. Is the tree dying?

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1354527}}

Here are mores pictures

Here is a link that might be useful: Redbud2

Pic

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1354529}}

they have taken up residence. we have taken limbs to save the tree. the little eaters flowed like lava when we did so . it was suggested we saccrifice. not yet ready , we waited .this has been one of it's best shows ever . i hope i can save a clone. no-one in any area close to us has one.
damn ants are so destructive to this beautiful tree.

Our redbud has been amazing for at least ten years, it has gone thru many stages from tons of beans to tons of flowers. This year we had very few flowers and even less leaves. It also bloomed very late. We have many bare branches. Sometimes when it is wet it appears to have mold on it. Help Any idea what is happening, we were about to cut it down because we thought it died then all of a sudden it started to come back. Still not looking good

I have a new Redbud that has been planted since winter. It has been beautiful. It has large dark reddish purple leaves. We have had dry hot weather but we have sprinkler system. In the last 3-4 days the leaves turned brown and are dead and crunchy. What happened

I looked at my leaves again on my redbud today,one day later and they are all brown. I scraped a little place on the bark and it seems to be somewhat light green. I have never seen tree leaves die in a matter of 4 days. I don't know what happened. Can anybody help me figure out what is going on and another thing. Every Redbud tree pic I have looked at has green leaves but mine were a deep wine color.

I am new at this. I have put 2 post here I think. Can someone tell me if I am doing this right. I really have a major problem with my Redbud tree

Jan
As posted earlier - redbuds are succeptible to verticullum wilt, a soil disease: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1164.html
This will cause all the leaves to wilt and drop in a matter of days; the diease is in the soil and infects the tree through the roots. It more or less clogs the tree's circulatory system. Sorry to say it's probably best to try planting some other kind of tree that is not affected by v. wilt in your soil, since there is no good way to rid the soil of the infection or to cure a badly infected tree.

Your redbud tree with dark reddish suede-surface leaves is a Pansy redbud - very pretty but also more susceptible to damage from high heat and strong sun than redbud varieties with lighter color leaves with a more waxy coat.

Wish I had more cheerful news - the good news is that you can look up trees that are resistant to verticulum wilt.

Thank you tegcom4 7, I guess you can guess by now that the twigs are snapping so it is very dead. It was just planted in the winter so it is new. It was so beautiful but your right. We have a 1yr. Warranty so I will get the landscaper to plant something else. I am also going to look up that soil problem because everything in our yard is new including our grass and someone is coming next week to overlay with sand. Do you think our house will rot also? Lol

I have a redbud sapling that I have been trying to start in a pot since April 2011. It has grown and leafed out nicely this spring, but suddenly the leaves turned brittle, curled up and fell off. It has been in full sun here in Houston, so I gather from the other posts that the problem might be the intensifying heat here. Moving it to the shade, with no leaves on it. Do you think there is hope?

Crottys,
There is always hope, especially in gardening and nature. I hope your tree perks up in the shade.

Martha

I've learned a lot about Redbuds just reading through all the comments here. We moved into our house in '94. We're in south east Tennessee close to the Georgia and NC state lines. we have a partially wooded back yard facing east. Our house is located on a Chert ridge with more rocks than soil. Inthe beginning we had a wealth of Dogwood trees in our yard but over the years the Dogwood blight has taken more and more of them until we have no more than ten trees and they aren't doing all that well. There was a wild Redbud at the edge of a wooded lot next door to us. As our Dogwoods have dwindled the Redbuds are springing up all over in their place. The ones that are in an unwanted location I remove. The others I give my blessings and they survive or fail on their own.
This year I've gathered seeds from several of the Redbuds and plan to try to raise them in pots so I can plant them in desired spots where none have volunteered. I'm hoping that I have some success.

Two recently replanted redbuds in yard. Both grew from pots over last 5 years. Both moved at about 10 feet tall.

First: replanted Summer '11. Looked great last year, and this spring. Second: replanted summer '12. Waited and waited. Alas, no buds, no flowers, no leaves this spring.

With clean pen knife, looked at bark. Some green in trunk and branches...not a lot. Much greener in the first tree.

What do you think? First tree has already flowered and shooting out leaves now. Will second tree come on later this spring/summer? Wait another year? Chop it, and try with another? Big, beautifully shaped twig in ground!

This post was edited by CommodoreTwit on Wed, May 15, 13 at 12:47

If it's green beneath the bark, why not give it time? I noticed my Redbud was one of the very last trees to leaf out this spring. Over the winter, I yanked it out of the ground and transplanted it. I figured it would never survive. It did. It's probably 4 or 5 years old. It's scrawny and only about 7 or 8 feet tall. It's a shade-loving tree, so it probably would get scorched by too much direct sunlight. And it'll probably never be a fast grower. Mine has grown extremely slowly. But I'm glad I still have it and hope that it will someday be nice.

s8us89ds:
Solid advice. Suddenly, at start of June, my dead as a doornail redbud tree has sprouted stems off the thick base at the trunk's bottom. The tree is most definitely alive. Stems feature leaves. It's weird though, as nothing above the first three feet of the trunk is doing anything. I don't know whether I shouldn't cut off these goofy looking 'sucker' stems to promote possible life higher in the branches of the tree, or just leave them alone to suck up a little bit of sunshine. I think the latter?

Hello,

I have a redbud I should name Lazarus. The poor thing has been mowed down twice, but has managed to come back. It is now about 3 feet tall and I was happy to see it leaf out very nicely this spring. (It has never gotten big enough to bloom yet.) But now it is mid-July and all of the leaves have yellowed and are dropping like crazy. We are having a very stormy, tropical type summer with a LOT of rain. Is there such a thing as too much rain for redbuds? It is not hotter than usual, we often have 100+ temps here in Tidewater VA in summer.

Thanks!

My wife and I are quite upset... we have a beautiful 4 or 5 year old Redbud that didn't make it through this past winter. We have been hoping that it's just blooming late this year but sadly it now looks completely dead. We have no idea what went wrong. The tree was fine all last season, although we think we remember it lost its leaves a little earlier than usual last fall but other than that we noticed nothing out of the ordinary. I have read that once established Rebud's are quite hardy but obviously not ours. We want to replace it as soon as possible but we're a bit concerned about putting another one in the same spot that just killed the first one. Should we be concerned?

I have a 4 year old Redbud that survived our harsh, frigid winter but did not flower in the spring and has small sparse leaves that finally came out in May. What do I need to do to help this tree look better and not so anemic?

Just a follow up to my earlier posts. Left the one non-blooming transplant in the yard for all of 2013. When again in spring of 2014 nothing showed, I gave it the heave ho. Sad, but a nice fir tree in there now and doing well. The first redbud tree I had (blooming in photos above & here) continues in marvelous shape. This year it produced great color, along with scads of seed pods. Now, in November all leaves have dropped, but dark seed pods still cling. Do they drop off eventually? Do I need to pull them?

I too have redbuds that are now leafless for the fall but continue to have dark pods hanging from them. The pugs have been there for 2 years now and haven't dropped. They showed up 2 Falls ago and have lasted through the winter, the summer and then again through the winter spring and the summer. They are very unattractive to look like and can still be seen through the summer foliage. How do I get the pods off and should I pick them or will that hurt the trees?

They're just seed pods. They're not harming the tree, and it wouldn't harm it if you removed them.

Growing up in NE Oklahoma, my favorite time of year was when the Dogwoods and Redbuds would bloom. Now I live up here in SE Pa we still have both of these trees in spring. The cornus have taken a hit from anthracnose in the last few decades but the survivors seem to have weathered it and are better but still not up to peak as they were. I must say nothing has affected the cercis and they are perfece every Spring. They are just starting to open in the last few days here. My only complaint about them would be their profundity of seedlings which come up everywhere. And, since they rapidly form a deep taproot, it is a major task to pull them if not removed while still tiny.

Loss of Red bud/ last year i purchase a beautiful tree. It had slight damage about a foot up the trunk, when i bought it. It grew beautifully and displayed flowerd in the spring that were beautiful. I was delighted as it was thr memorail tree i purchaed to remember my sister who died last year. A few weeks ago, with just a slight wind, the tree was felled. It was so upsetting to see that beautiful tree on the ground, with it’s heart shaped flowers acting as if nothing happened. They did not shrivel up even three days later. I tried in vain to figure out how to raise the tree and tape or somehow attach the trunk back. In the end i had no choice but ti cut the tree below the damaged trunk. It is now growing little branches, one week later. Will this grow into tree or a bush? Does anyone know how i would care for this tree? I would like to save it.

Hello- I have a rising use red bud that got “topped” in a windstorm. It is a few years old and is in a pot 3’ x 3’ and probably six feet tall. I know it won’t get any taller but it seems the leaves have “shrunk” considerably in size and they no longer put on the color show. Can this tree continue to thrive in a pot with no upward growth?