Tried a couple of the western redbuds once upon a time - my ex fell in love with them on a drive down to the Bay area one May. One succumbed to verticillium wilt within the year; the second one struggled for a couple of years longer then finally gave up. I've been in the nursery biz here for the past 20 years or so and western redbuds have never been very common.....in fact I can't think of more than a couple of times I have ever seen them available locally. If I'd have to pick a redbud for this area, I'd go with Cercis chinensis 'Avondale' - for the most part, Asian species seem to do quite well in our mild, damp climate.

Hardiness zone-wise, the Eastern Redbud should do fine in Front Range area, but of course other things than zone come into play here in Colorado. Like tommysmom, I'm in the Denver metro area, so I am not sure this will help you... Two of our neighbors (across the street from our house) have redbuds in their yards; they are mature trees and thrive year after year with a wonderful display of flowers in the early spring. I, however, haven't had much luck with them in my yard. One that I purchased did OK for a few years but then split in half one winter and died. I have had several "volunteers" that showed up in my yard - seeds from my neighbors' trees obviously - but most of them have died, not making it through their first winter. I do have a couple of seedlings (about 3 or 4 ft high) that seem to be OK this spring - one even has about 3 flower clusters on it, lol - so perhaps my luck has changed, but I am not counting on it! It could be that the trees need some extra protection from the cold and wind during their first year or so here in Colorado, which I have not provided. Perhaps they need tree wrap, extra mulch, or.... The blooms of the Eastern Redbuds are beautiful and I really like the leaves as well, so I would love to have one that survives. karljr - if no one from Colorado Springs responds, you can always check with a reputable nursery in your area and see what they recommend. Holly

Looks like a combination of root girdling and sun scald. Clues to root girdling are the abnormal trunk flare and surface level roots. If you brush away the mulch, you might find the roots are encircling the tree, rather than growing laterally. It's usually a transplanting issue. Sun scald damage is preventable by wrapping trees over winter from the lowest branches downward. Tree guards can also prevent young trees from potential wildlife damage.

rusty_blackhaw, if you look up tree bylaw in any of the biggest cities in Canada, they all have a tree bylaw. The premise is good in that trees are important and they should not be cut down without a good reason to do so. So these cities have made it very difficult to remove private residential trees of certain sizes without a permit ($400 just to begin the process) and then the city comes to check whether the tree qualifies (under the tree bylaw) to be cut down---and it usually doesn't. If you make an appeal to the city to have another look at the situation, the tree will be further reviewed and a decision will be made by a community council of councillors. And get this---If you should be so lucky that they allow you to remove the tree after appealing, you'll have to replant 5 trees! If you don't have space for 5 trees, you pay the city for each tree you can't plant on your property. So if you appeal the decision, you get "punished" for doing so. Frustrates me to no end. As trees are living things and they grow and change, and they may have been left to grow in inappropriate locations. Well that is too bad! Good to hear about the redbud tree. It would be a city tree, which means we would not have the right to trim it nor prune it. When it dies, the city would remove it and replant with something else. The city owns some property near the sidewalk of most homes where I am. So they plant city trees on the part they own. But a majority of the branches and most of the roots will grow on my property! Now the redbud tree may not have lots of roots, but after having my whole backyard full of tree roots, I think I deserve a limited amount of roots in my front yard! The city doesn't think so.