Red Bud Tree???

[lesa]

I don't usually go in for ornamental trees- but I really do love a Red Bud in bloom! A few years ago, I picked up one at Home Depot. Planted it in the fall- and it lived through two winters. I was hoping for buds this year- nothing. No new growth on the old wood at all. Now, a bunch of new green stems are growing out of the trunk (at branch level, not ground level). The leaves look like red bud. Is this just "sucker" growth? Is the tree a goner? Or will these green stems turn into woody ones??

 

[thistlebloom]

Oh I love Redbuds, and I had one for a few years that my sister brought out to me when she came for a visit. After a tough winter
it suckered up from the roots and I let them all grow for a season, then the next spring I pruned all but one and it grew well. Unfortunately we had another tough winter for it and that volunteer died and I decided to quit messing with the regrowth and pulled it out.
I think yours will do much the same as far as regrowing, and to me it would be worth it to let it develop and see what happens.
Hardiness zones are 4 to 9 and it has been grown in 3b in Minneapolis. I don't know what the deal was with mine, maybe because it was a Missouri tree....? North Idaho scared it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is not just North Idaho that is hard on them. I see some around here that are 25 feet tall and doing great, but I have lots of trouble with my three. One died and came back from the roots, totally different leaves so it was obviously grafted. Another broke off in a windstorm but above the graft, and a third broke in an ice storm also above the graft if that one was even grafted. I'm not sure. I'm just letting them all come back as they will and consider it "character". I may eventually prune but am considering having a redbud thicket.

If yours was a grafted tree and the sprouts are above the graft, it should be OK. If the sprouts are below the graft, the variety of redbud could change.

I see a lot more dogwood than redbud growing wild around here and, not very surprisingly, my dogwoods are doing a lot better than my redbud.

 

[patandchickens]

I got lambasted a year or two ago for suggesting that redbuds are only reliably hardy (in zone-typical sites) up to USDA zone 6 and better sites in 5. (As opposed to the list of zones that someone, somewhere, is growing them in, under unusually favorable or lucky circumstances). Next time the subject comes up, feel free to share your experience :>

Yeah, they do that. And that's the trouble with woody plants all it takes is one particularly bad winter to undo a number of years' good work of growth.

The good thing is that at least redbuds CAN come back to some reasonable degree, as yours is trying to do. The green growth will indeed turn woody. Whether it will survive and the tree will recover long-term depends in large part on what this summer/fall/winter weather happens to be like. But unless you are really feeling axe-happy I'd give the thing another year or two to prove itself. It might end up just fine.

Prune off the dead old wood, though. Otherwise you can get fungus started that damages the still-living parts. If you are unsure where dead stops and live begins, do it incrementally, looking for green under the bark.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lesa]

Pat, it seems everyone around me grows them successfully, that is why I tried!! I planted the tree under some other trees in a woodland garden setting. That seems to be how I see them growing...
I will cut off the old wood and hope for the best.

 

[hoodat]

I also love red buds but perhaps for a different reason. In Oklahoma the first flowers on red buds mean you'd better get thee hence to the headwaters of the creeks. Sand bass will be making their spawning runs.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

They grow wild around here, anywhere between 1500 and 3000 ft elevation. Zone 7b - 8a. We bought one for our property, and it sure was pretty this spring. We'll see how it likes the 100 degree days this summer.

 

[hoodat]

100 degree days shouldn't faze them. They grew all through the woods in Oklahoma and 100+ was our normal summer.

 

[4grandbabies]

I love red buds! They grew along with dogwood on a bluff that I had to drive by in my "working" days. that was a beautiful sight.