Wish I could offer words of encouragement. I tried the jap maples several times, and all died. Redbud is supposedly hardy to z4, but the one I tried died after two years. The roots are still alive tho, because it still puts up some 'waterspout' type limbs each spring. To me, both are a waste of time and space and energy. I always think of the old song "love the one your with", and try to plant what is hardy to where I live. Its so much more rewarding to see the trees and shrubs thriving, as opposed to putzing and fussing with wimpy stuff that barely hangs on. The lady across the street has a lovely older redbud.
I expect if you grow your own and know how to do that sort of thing, it may work for you. I sure do wish you well.
Pondy

Hi, I have only planted redbud saplings, but they did well. Although I was warned that they may not hold out in my zone (5) they grew well at both houses I planted them. At the first house one was eaten off by a rabbit when quite small. I was very annoyed at first, but that just made it have many branches and be extra gorgeous in bloom.

One location was in northern IL, the other is here in WI. Many years ago I planted a redbud tree as a gift to my mom for Mother's Day. I bought her house a few years back and thus it came with a nice redbud tree. :-) It is slightly sheltered by other trees, but we are in a windy location and it gets quite cold so don't know what to say about the wimpiness factor. I bought them in bulk, like 100 or more, so they were dirt cheap, but you would have to have something to do with all the trees to get that price . . . I was selling trees for Earth Day at a large corporation in my role as president of the Environmental Club.

Marcia

Thanks for the information. I am going to try and see if anything will grow. We live in the woods so maybe I can try to shelter the redbud tree as much as possible. Thanks Barb