PlantFiles: Eastern Redbud, Canadian Redbud, Judas Tree
Cercis canadensis

The flowers of this plant are a tasty wild edible, and have a flavor reminiscent of sugar snap peas. The are great as a colorful addition to salads, candied as decor, in salads, made into jellies, or floated on top of a soup.

I planted this tree about 3 or 4 years ago and this is the first year it has bloomed. Unknown why it took so long. Was beginning to think it was mislabeled. I have tried extra fertilizer and extra water, and one of those may have caused it to bloom this year. I noticed in the information above that this tree likes acid soil, which we do NOT have. Our pH is around 7.4 to 7.6. I might add some sulfur and see what happens.

My Eastern Redbud, purchased last spring from a nursery, has branches that droop all the way to the ground, almost like a weeping willow, very unlike the picture with this article. It is about 5' tall. I accidently broke off the tallest center branch and it seems to have stood still almost, not appearing to have grown at all, unless perhaps the branches are longer. The leaves stayed nice and green all summer, then turned yellow and are almost all off now. Is this a different variety, or what? Is it normal for the branches to be this droopy? It was that way when we bought it.

Doing very well in partial shade. Great bloomer, nice leaves, interesting shape in winter. Some have reported problems with hardiness, but if you buy locally grown stock in zone 5 or 4b, give it some time in the ground to get its roots re-established before its first winter after transplanting (spring or very, very early fall at the latest), and build a nice mulch bed to help keep the frost line higher, you should do fine. I'm in Northeast Iowa in zone 4b, and we regularly get stretches of several days in the low teens and single digits below zero at night and barely breaking zero during the day. Our redbud is thriving after several winters.

Gathered about 250 seeds from various trees around West Arkansas. Scarified them by rolling in sand and rough gravel in a bucket for a while, then dropped them in hot water, let it sit for a day, then planted them out for winter and now I've got too many baby redbuds coming up to plant (though I'll try). One of the most beautiful native trees, though not as delicate in foliage as cercis occidentalis, it is much more striking in flower than its western cousin(personal opinion). Here in West Ark. the flowers are nearly purple, and started opening about a week into March.

My Parents gave DH and myself a Redbud out of their yard at the time in May 1999. It is beautiful in Spring, as well as the rest of the year. We have it planted in back and can see it from the kitchen window.

I have a tree that is about 10 years old. When I received it, it was about 1 ft. tall. Now it is about 10 feet tall with a huge umbrella, shady, shape. We enjoy it very much, both the flowers in the spring and the summer shade. Our birds enjoy the seed pods also. This year seems to be proving to be quite good as far as the loads of last year's seeds maturing into small plants. I haven't noticed so many before.

I love this tree, its beautiful. They're very common in Oklahoma and surrounding states.

Regarding propagation- My mom has had a few sprout from seed in her yard, and all transplanted sucessfully with little care. I think you can find out about the propagation in William Cullina's book about native trees (Anne Arundel Co. library has it). Also I have had a beetle that comes in the night and makes interesting circular cutouts along the edges of the leaves, but not so much as to really harm the trees (the aforementioned book names the beetle.)

According to the Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants, the flowerbuds can be pickled and the flowers added to salads. the buds, flowers and tender young pods can be sauteed in butter for 10 minutes.

Red buds are very pretty, but I have had trouble with them not growing well and dying young. I have noticed that a lot of others in the area have died recently as well.

The blooms are edible and taste pea-like.

Although the pinkish-purple flowers don't last a long time, they're striking because of their color and the way they seem to bleed from the branches. Foliage is lovely, first appearing a burnished green color, becoming fully green, and finally turning yellow in Fall. Often appearing multi-trunked, there is plenty of room for underplanting.

This Virginia native is a true sign that Spring has arrived, painting the woodlands & roadsides here in the Piedmont with swaths of first bright pink, & then pink & pale spring green as the leaves begin to come in. It's particularly effective when blooming alongside the white-flowering wild Dogwoods, also natives here.

I have 3 fairly large planted specimens in my yard, & have found them to be vigorous & virtually maintenance free.

Small flowering branch trimmings make lovely additions to vase arrangements.

The Red Bud tree is extremely popular in the older neighborhoods in our town. I have seen several hundred individual trees of varying sizes. It is remarkably well adapted here in Central Washington State. Anyone wanting a tree can simply look around to find starts. My sister 's neighbor has a tree that looks to be 60 years old. There are literally hundreds of starts in the gardens of her neighborhood up and down the street. They grow untill they're pulled or someone decides to replant them elsewhere. The Red Bud is used by the DOT along the interstate to beautify the offramps. I love the tree and have been trying to get one going in our yard. My son has clipped it one time too many with the lawn mower it seems.

I have 7 of these trees in my yard and they give the first color to our whole neighborhood in spring. I allow the seed pods to dry on the tree before I collect them and open them to gather the seeds. This tree is also the official State Tree of Oklahoma.

This tree grows quite well in our area and lives a good while. My Mom had some in her yard that were transplanted from the fields and they were over 35 years old before they split and cracked so bad, they had to be taken down...we did not remove the stumps and they sprouted from the bases. We trained the sprouts to single trunks and they look beautiful today.

They are at home as an understory tree or a full sun stand alone plant.

I love the flowers in the spring and the seed pods give nice late Autumn interest. Songbirds like the seeds.

As stated, the seeds sprout and need to be taken up from your flowerbeds before they get very large.

We live in the woods and the Redbud seems to do really well along the edge of a clearing where it can reach a bit out into the sunlight. Our road frontage and property are lined with them. It's a favorite tree of mine not only because of its spring blossoms, but also the heart-shaped foliage. Also, if you like moths, one of our little 12' trees in the yard supported over a dozen different moth larvae in one season.
A few years ago the road crew chopped many of them almost to the ground and the next spring they were right back up. They can be invasive. I have had to pull many little seedlings out of flowerbeds and if you don't pull them the first season, they develop a very long taproot and are hard to remove.

In Massachusetts, the cold winter of 2004 killed two out of three of my young redbuds, and the survivor had considerable dieback in the outer branches. It's not hardy everywhere in zone 5!

This plant is also called the "Judas Tree" because it was said that Judas hanged himself from a redbud and ever since that time, the tree never was able to form any heavy branches.

Redbuds do very well in Missouri. I have seen them 40 feet tall, I have seen them with large trunks...10 inches in diameter is large for this "small" tree. Some of them are pretty old, 40-50 years. I am giving these comments so that people will not be too discouraged with the other remarks above. Perhaps we are just lucky to have the perfect climate for them...They prefer some light shade and humusy, moist soil, so they are not really good candidates for sunny lawns where all the good soil has been removed. That may be why some of them die so soon.
As for the leaves in fall...they are a light yellow. True, they do not make a big color splash, but take an hour some day to watch them fall to the ground...they spiral around and around as they make their leisurely descent.
There is no prettier sight here in spring than when the redbuds and dogwoods bloom against a background of red cedars.

small, relatively short-lived tree (14-20 years) with attractive pale pink to magenta flowers, that come right off larger stems, in early spring as leaves coming back. Not supposed to be a very hardy tree in terms of disease, and has 'poor fall color'.

Native here in Maryland, redbuds are the perfect complement to our white dogwoods. We just moved into a newly built home and are delighted to see them in our yard and overhanging our driveway from the neighbor's yard. There were only a few nursery grown redbuds at my old location only 15 miles away. Can anyone give me tips on successful propagation?

This tree is a true harbinger of spring.

We have mildly alkaline soil here, and the trees grow wild in this area (North Texas) with no problems. Of course, they are also grown in professionally landscaped areas and in home gardens as well, since they are SOOOOO beautiful in spring.

They are small trees, althoughs oem wild ones actually resemble shrubs or bushes more than trees. Slow growing. This tree is not always tall, and is good as an understory planting (under taller trees).

This is a candidate for a Specimen tree - lovely in flower, bare branches have a lot of character, and heart shaped leaves, as they change color through the three seasons. It is rather sensitive, though - needs light shade, acid soil. Also vulnerable to borers, loses branches from time to time. Don't get any herbicide anywhere near the root system - it will kill the tree. Don't over feed, just compost/leafmold over root zone for winter blanket - be patient, it's worth waiting for.

Planted this tree 4 years ago and it has never blossomed. It has grown and gets leaves but no buds. Have fertilized for the last year, twice and still nothing. They are blooming all over town! A nursery was no help. The tree is 15 feet tall! What to do? Can someone help me????

We've grown these trees in two states now. The first one had a chronic problem with scale, and it seemed to be stunting its growth :(

We "inherited" several mature specimens with our current property, and I'm happy to report they don't seem afflicted with scale problems. The spring flowers are nice, but not nearly as showy as dogwoods.

Redbuds are native to at least the northern half of Florida, and do very well here.

Rosy pink flowers appear in April. Reddish-purple leaves change to dark green, then to yellow. Forms a spreading, graceful crown. Full sun or light shade. Partial shade preferred in windy, dry areas. Grows to 20' to 30', 30' spread.