Hi Carol Ann,

I have had Forest Pansy since 1996. It is a beautiful tree. I love the it. Nice summer red-purple leaf color. Love the heart shape leaves, the tiny flowers. It is in a northern exposure and gets full sun. Grows in clay soil. Very healthy tree and have not had any trouble with it.

Mary

Many posts in past about this 'Pansy' of a tree faltering, including one reporting that C. Morris had announced all the ones in Seattle were dying. Last thing I heard was that a water mold expert had told a friend many local failures were due to soil simply being too wet, without a pathogenic fungus (verticillium wilt is often named as the cause) being involved. Here in my neighborhood there are two newish ones about the same size, on different properties. One tree is looking pretty happy, the other droopy.

We have two that we planted in 2000 along our western property line in a bed that is raised above a seasonal Âdry creek bed. (man-made for the occasional really wet winters.) They get almost full day sun with a 6 ft. fence to the back of them, a 50ft. tall Western Red cedar to the south, a 60ft. Douglas fir to the north and open lawns to the east. Our soil is sandy/loam.
In summer, they are watered via underground sprinkler system; each has a Âbubbler head near the trunk. They are approximately 15 ft. tall now and almost as wide. We bought them for their wonderful leaf color, but IÂm not as impressed with their fall color, which is rust red. But I will say that the fall color is certainly a nice contrast to the many gold/yellow colors of surrounding trees. I have seen pictures of the wonderful blossoms on these trees, but all my redbuds (besides the two Forest PansyÂs, I have three green Cersis and a Cersis Chinensis) only have fuchsia buds in spring that open into insignificant flowers. The leaf shape and color and the interesting tree shape (more rounded) more than make up for the lack of appealing flower and fall color.
Enjoy!
S.

There is a mature one in my neighborhood that's been there as long as I have lived here - ~20years. Southern, full sun exposure and most likely decent soil (as most of Shoreline is). It's pretty magnificent through summer and fall - holds the purple leaf tones well and changes through a reddish-orange sequence similar to a smokebush in fall. My experience with redbuds in the PNW is that extremely well draining soil is essential to their long term viability.

Just got back from a camping trip near Bremerton. I had to stop at Country Garden Nursery on my way back. They have just gorgeous Cersis and Cotinus 'Grace'. It was so tough not to haul them home. Maybe because the car was jam packed with camping gear, you think?
Hmm..

The color is better on the redbud. If there wasn't room for the gear and a tree, maybe you could've left behind one of the kids. Who knows, they might've given them a place to stay and a job. Watering and weeding in exchange for room and board, perhaps a few more plants for you to take home when you came back to pick them up.

Ron,
She is two and a half. I think child labour is still abolished in this state, right? And, with her watering and weeding "skills" the garden staff will be begging me to take her home.
BTW, I saw the VERY freaky Kitsap County Master Gardner 2006 calendar. Talk about too much information!

Guess you should've left some of the gear then. I mean, what were you thinking?!

Does anyone know of any growers in Washington or Oregon that carry mature Forest Pansy? I'm looking to get a few and was hoping to be efficient and cost effective by going direct to the grower. Thanks for any help!

Rick

Rick, unless you have a retail nursery license or are otherwise associated with a landscaping/horticultural business, most growers won't even let you on the property. They just can't be bothered dealing with an ordinary consumer. Depending on your location, you might want to check out Big Trees in Snohomish or Olympic Nursery in Woodinville, as both deal often with larger sized specimen trees but selection will always be spotty on exactly what they have in stock at any given time.

OTOH, many larger retail nurseries in the area will carry some decent sized examples of this tree in spring.......I guess it all depends on what you mean by "mature".

I'm not sure what you mean by mature, or by cost effective, but here's a website to check. GardenWorld is along I-5 in Oregon and they list 10' forest pansies if you search for cercis canadensis.

Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWorld