How to Start a Redbud Tree

Redbud trees have early flowers

Start a redbud tree in your landscape or yard in fall or winter in Texas. The redbud tree is one of the early spring flowering small trees that is showy and a good landscape choice.

It is a great tree to plant in a right of way where there are height restrictions, since they do not usually get taller than about 20 feet.

Cercis Canadensis is the more common Redbud tree, but Cercis reniformis, or Oklahoma Redbud is a taller straighter tree. There are also alba or white flowering variations that we have not tried to grow.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• a redbud tree
• shovels and some strong arms
• water

1. Purchase a first redbud sapling.

   Start a redbud tree from a purchased root ball as small as you want to attempt to grow. After the first tree, you may want to start a seedling in a container and watch it grow until it is large enough to plant in the ground.

2. Redbud variety that grows tall and thinner than most

   Choose a planting spot.

   Find a location that has some shade and lots of room to grow. Remember that this tree may get large--maybe fifteen feet wide and twenty feet tall.

3. Always splendid flowers on the redbud tree

   Start with a large diameter hole.

   Dig a huge hole. Make it four or five times the size of the root ball. Add the redbud sapling and water it to settle the soil and wet the entire root. Anchor the tree into place.

4. Plant at the appropriate depth.

   Add soil until it is to the top of the root ball. Create a valley about six inches from the trunk, in a circle all around the tree. Fill this valley with water to get the tree started. Add mulch around the sapling, but leave the valley depression to water later. Water frequently the first week or two it is planted.

5. Watch the redbud sapling the first winter.

   Check on your new redbud tree occasionally during the winter to be sure it is getting sufficient water. Keep an eye open for early buds, and bursts of pink and purple blooms. The Redbud trees are one of our early flowers in Texas. They are not much shade, maybe for some small plants under them, but they are green leaves all summer and beautiful flowers in the spring. They are a pleasure to look at, and not much work after the first year of transplanting. It is well worth your time to start a Redbud tree.

6. Redbud tree seed pods or beans in the fall

   Watch for seed pods.

   After the blooms are gone, beans will start to form. Leave the bean pods until fall when they turn brown. They will be dry and feel hollow, but each pod will contain a few seeds you can save or use to start a new redbud tree in a container. Once your tree gets a foot or two tall, you may want to plant it in your outdoor landscape. More than one tree of the same kind creates some continuity to your landscape, and different sizes are also attractive. Watching the sapling grow into a tree is the beauty of nature.

Tips & Warnings

• We often write about landscaping a yard and planting in Texas. See more articles like this in Resources below.

• copyright 2009 Linda Richard

• Feel free to link to this article or send it to a friend. Do not copy.

Resources

• Feed Flowers and Shrubs on a Budget
• Landscape a Yard: Trees and Shrubs not to Buy
• Grow Perennial Herbs for Flowers or Food
• Grow Esperanza Yellow Bells
• Attract Birds Wildlife Butterflies to a Yard
• Landscape a Perennial Yard
• Grow Knockout Roses
• Grow Chrysanthemum Pacifica