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Trees in trouble: Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy'

12 years ago

Generic write up:

Short summary is we received a little over 2 feet of rain fairly evenly over 40 days mid April through May. Many, MANY trees appear to have leaf damage that is either black/brown established or not. It has been in the low/mid 90's now for a few days and looks like it will not let up until September. Assume that the trunk flare is at the proper level.

/generic write up

This tree was planted before bud break in early March. A late frost in early April zapped some of the leaves but it recovered and put out new growth like nothing happened. Now, quite unlike the redbud in my other topic, the leaves are turning beautiful combinations of red/yellow that is so not normal. We have been in the low/mid 90's the last few days however the soil is still moist but not saturated beneath a 1-2" layer of mulch. Any ideas as to was this is? It looks like some trees do at the end of our long hot summers to me but I know it is not from a lack of water.

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By jp_42_82 at 2011-06-05

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By jp_42_82 at 2011-06-05

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By jp_42_82 at 2011-06-05

Comments (3)

Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
12 years ago
j0nd03, are we talking just a couple leaves or the whole tree?

It was a rough winter for Forest Pansy around here. The two at the bank and one in a neighbor's yard I know all kicked the bucket. Yours looks decent in the pics.

We have had similar weather up here. It has suddenly become hot after over average precipitation. Sure enough some leaves are falling off trees.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
you are getting paranoid.. a few leaves mean nothing.. compared to your other trees and posts..

ignore this one for now ...

when and if 90% of the leaves are that color.. then we might have something to recommend ...

ken
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j0nd03
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks guys. This tree does look good overall, and as long as the yellowing pattern stops, I think it will be ok as per the replies.

It is so frustrating. We have severe drought beginning early last summer continuing until we get flooded over a month and a half with 24+". In addition to the 3 trees I made topics about, I special ordered a Cladrastis kentukea "yellowwood" that is sitting naked in a nice protective cage to keep the tree nibblers at bay. It leafed out nice and full and then all the leaves turned brown and fell last week :( I also special ordered a Catalpa bignonioides "southern catalpa" that never even put a leaf out. I scratch tested it every 2-3 weeks since planting (mid-late March) and it stayed green until last week. I then pruned the stick trying to find green and ended up at ground level and exposing ever more brown wood.

So yes, Ken, I AM PARANOID! lol

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