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Eastern Redbud
The small tree that sets the spring woods alight - a haze of magenta-pink flowers erupting straight from bare branches, followed by heart-shaped leaves, on a graceful, easy native understory tree.
Safety notes Redbud is a safe ornamental tree, and its bright flowers are a fun edible novelty - tangy and pleasant raw in salads, pickled, or fried, and the young immature pods can be cooked like snow peas. Eat the flowers and very young pods only, in moderation, and only from trees not sprayed with pesticides; mature pods and seeds are tough and not eaten. It's grown chiefly as a small flowering tree, not as a food crop.
Overview
Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) is one of spring's great sights - a small (15-30 foot) native tree that in early spring covers its bare branches, and even its trunk, in a haze of vivid magenta-pink pea-like flowers before a single leaf appears. That trait of flowering directly on old wood (called cauliflory) is unusual and unforgettable, and it's an early nectar source for bees. After bloom come distinctive heart-shaped leaves (burgundy or gold in some cultivars) and, being a legume, flat pods that hang into winter.
Quick facts
- Sprouts in
- 60 daysRange: 30–90 days
- Soil temperature
- 70 °FRange: 65–75 °F
- Height
- 25 ftRange: 15–30 ft
- Spread
- 25 ftRange: 15–33 ft
- Cold
- Takes hard frostdamaged below -25°F
- Heat
- Struggles above 100°F
- Life cycle
- Perennial, lives about 50 years
- Save seeds
- About 150 days after plantingRange: 120–180 days
- Self-sows
- Yes, expect volunteers
- Soil
- Well-drained
- Water
- Medium
- Plant spacing
- 20 ftRange: 10–30 ft
When to plant
Fall sowing is open for 20 more days. Next: spring, Mar 27 to May 22.
- Direct sow Oct 11 – Nov 8 Open now · 20 days leftAbout 2 weeks before to 2 weeks after your first frost (Oct 25 here)Fall-sow seed outdoors; redbud seed has a hard coat AND needs cold stratification (scarify plus chill), germinates in spring, and is slow - transplants are far faster.
- Transplant Mar 27 – May 22 Opens in 159 daysAbout 2 weeks before to 6 weeks after your last frost (Apr 10 here)Plant a young container or B&B redbud in early spring into well-drained soil in sun to part shade; plant small, since the taproot resents disturbance.
- Transplant Aug 16 – Sep 27 Opens in 301 daysAbout 10 weeks before to 4 weeks before your first frost (Oct 25 here)Fall planting works in milder zones if roots establish before hard freeze; water well until dormancy.
Frost here: last around Apr 10 (Mar 27 to Apr 24 most years), first around Oct 25. Zone averages, your own yard may run a week or two either way.
Life stages
Establish, grow, repeat
Getting established and returning each season are different parts of the story.
Stage 1 of 4 · Getting established
Years 1-2 - young tree
About the first 1.5 years after planting
Care at this stage
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Water regularly while establishing
Keep a young redbud evenly watered for its first two years. It has a taproot and resents being moved once established, so plant it small in its permanent spot.
-
Mulch and site in dappled light
Redbud is a woodland-edge understory tree that appreciates some afternoon shade in hot regions, though it flowers best with good light. Mulch the root zone, kept off the trunk.
Months are typical seasonal windows; climate, variety, and plant age can shift them.
Watch out for
3 to know. None are high-risk for Eastern Redbud. None are active in October.
Canker & DiebackSeverity Medium DiseaseSeason: May–SepSunken, discolored, or cracked bark lesions on branches, wilting and dieback above them, and gradual loss of limbs.
Sunken, discolored, or cracked bark lesions on branches, wilting and dieback above them, and gradual loss of limbs.
Prune out cankered branches well below the lesion, sanitizing tools between cuts; there's no spray cure - vigor and sanitation are the tools.
Keep the tree healthy and unstressed - water in drought, avoid trunk wounds, site it well; canker preys on stressed trees.
Fungal cankers (notably Botryosphaeria) that form sunken lesions on branches and cause dieback, mostly attacking trees stressed by drought, injury, or a poor site - the main factor in redbud's shortish life.
Verticillium WiltSeverity Medium DiseaseSeason: May–AugOne branch, one limb or one side of a plant wilting, yellowing and browning in summer while the rest carries on normally - the lopsided pattern is the tell - and leaves that wilt and then hang on rather than dropping cleanly.
Redbud is one of the classic woody hosts, and a mature tree usually goes branch by branch over several seasons rather than all at once. Prune well below the streaked wood and keep the tree watered and mulched instead of feeding it hard.
One branch, one limb or one side of a plant wilting, yellowing and browning in summer while the rest carries on normally - the lopsided pattern is the tell - and leaves that wilt and then hang on rather than dropping cleanly. Cut into affected wood and look for olive-green, grey or brown streaking along the grain; in a cut vegetable stem it shows as a ring of discolored dots. On vegetables, lower leaves yellow in a wedge from the margin inward, and the plant wilts at midday but recovers overnight in the early stages.
There is no cure and nothing to spray. On a tree or shrub the aim is to keep it alive long enough to compartmentalize the fungus, which many plants manage for years: prune out dead and wilting branches well below the discolored wood, sanitize the pruners between cuts, water deeply through dry spells, mulch, and feed lightly rather than pushing it with a heavy feed. On vegetables, pull and bin affected plants rather than composting them, and move that crop to clean ground or to containers of fresh mix. Do not replant the same species where one has died.
There is no way to sterilize garden soil of it, so prevention is plant choice and plant vigor. Do not replant a susceptible species where one has already died of it. Grasses, conifers, ginkgo, hawthorn, hornbeam, honeylocust, oak and beech do not get it, and many vegetable varieties carry bred-in resistance - the V in a VFN code on the seed packet. Rotate susceptible vegetables on a long cycle and keep them off ground where the disease has shown. Buy clean stock, avoid wounding roots with spades and machinery, and keep woody plants steadily watered, mulched and only lightly fed, because a vigorous plant walls the fungus off far better than a stressed one.
A soil fungus (Verticillium dahliae and relatives) that enters through the roots and grows upward inside the water-conducting tissue, plugging it from within. The plant is not being eaten or rotted, it is being cut off from its own water supply, which is why the signature symptom is one branch or one side wilting and browning while the rest looks perfectly healthy. Cut into affected wood or stem and the tissue is streaked olive-green, grey or brown. The host range is enormous - maples, redbud, olive, tomato, potato, pepper, eggplant, strawberry and many more - and the fungus survives in soil for years as tough resting structures, so infected ground stays infected. Grasses and conifers do not get it.
Leafhoppers & CaterpillarsSeverity Low PestSeason: May–JulChewed or stippled leaves, small hopping insects, or occasional scale bumps on twigs, generally without real harm.
Chewed or stippled leaves, small hopping insects, or occasional scale bumps on twigs, generally without real harm.
Rarely needed - tolerate light feeding; treat only significant scale or infestations, and never spray away the native caterpillars it hosts.
Support natural predators; a healthy tree tolerates normal insect feeding, some of which (caterpillars) is beneficial wildlife food.
Assorted leaf-feeding insects (leafhoppers, caterpillars, occasional scale) that chew or stipple redbud leaves - usually minor and cosmetic on a healthy tree, and part of its role as a native host plant.
Good & bad neighbors
Plant nearby
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The quintessential native spring pairing: redbud's magenta-pink and dogwood's white bloom together at the woodland edge, a classic understory combination beneath taller canopy trees.
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Two native small trees that bloom together in early spring (pink and white), extend early nectar for pollinators, and layer a woodland-edge planting.
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Spring woodland wildflowersUnderplanting redbud with native spring ephemerals (trillium, phlox, bloodroot) and ferns completes a woodland-edge tableau that blooms with the tree.
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Redbud is a natural understory tree beneath a high oak canopy, flowering in the spring light before the oak leafs out - authentic eastern-forest layering.
Varieties · 5
You pick one when you add Eastern Redbud to your garden. Its days to maturity set your harvest window.
Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)
The wild species: a 15-30 foot native tree covered in magenta-pink pea flowers on bare branches in early spring, followed by heart-shaped leaves and yellow fall color.
Variety details for Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)
Vase-shaped small tree wreathed in magenta-pink flowers on bare branches, then heart-shaped leaves.
speciesnativemagenta-pinkedible-flowersThe classic native flowering understory tree, with edible flowers.
Forest Pansy
The most popular redbud cultivar, grown for its dramatic scarlet-purple to deep burgundy new foliage (fading greener in summer heat) behind the usual pink flowers - a striking small specimen tree.
Variety details for Forest Pansy
Pink flowers followed by glossy burgundy-purple heart-shaped leaves.
cultivarburgundy-foliagepink-flowersornamentalRising Sun
A colorful cultivar whose new leaves emerge apricot-orange and mature through gold to lime-green, giving a multicolor glow all season behind rosy-pink spring flowers, on a compact tree.
Variety details for Rising Sun
Rosy flowers then apricot-to-gold-to-green heart-shaped foliage.
cultivargold-foliagecolorfulcompactTexas / Mexican Redbud (var. texensis / mexicana)
The southwestern native varieties, far more heat- and drought-tolerant than typical eastern redbud, with thick, glossy, wavy-edged leaves - the right choice for hot, dry southern and southwestern gardens.
Variety details for Texas / Mexican Redbud (var. texensis / mexicana)
Smaller redbud with thick glossy rounded leaves, tolerant of heat and drought.
varietynativeheat-tolerantdrought-tolerantAlba / white-flowered forms
White-flowered redbuds (such as 'Royal White' and 'Texas White') offer the same early cauliflorous bloom in pure white instead of pink - elegant and luminous, especially against a dark background.
Variety details for Alba / white-flowered forms
Bare branches wreathed in pure white pea flowers in early spring.
cultivarwhite-flowerselegant
Grower tips
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