I am not in your zone, but I do love redbuds and have several varieties. I love Forest Pansy, but should disclose that without a fair amount of sun it just turns into dark, not red, leaves, similar to many of the Japanese maples. Obviously if you plant it as an understory tree like most redbuds want, the window of opportunity for really red leaves is slim, as the tree will no longer be red when the trees above it are in full leaf. Best location seems to be almost full sun if you want to keep it red. Of course, it has an oversized leaf, so that also means that it will need to be monitored more often to make sure it does not wilt down, which many of the fancies will do. I do offer up the Hearts of Gold is another newer variety that is supposed to do well out in full or almost full sunlight, with oversized leaves and the color of a golden delicious apple. What a beauty. All of these newer varieties were accidental seedlings discovered by someone who caught that they were special, many at a young age. Yes, they are patented and propagated via graft, so you are supposed to have a permit to produce more of these trees. Also, a plus for some, these guys tend to set very little, if any, seed. Lavender Twist will set less than 30 pods on an adult tree, all 25% the size of a normal pod, all sterile. I have seen seed for Forest Pansy offered on Ebay with the disclaimer that it may not breed true, but I am very suspicious that the seed may have been harvested from any branches belonging to the root parent, making it plain old redbud from the forest, but not a Forest Pansy. Don't forget some of the older varieties - Oklahoma redbud, the Texas redbud, and the weeping redbud, Traveller. Traveller is the one I want, but couldn't find at anywhere a resonable price. My Lavender Twist is similar, but not the same. A problem that I do not see addressed is predation of young trees by deer. Of course, in NJ, deer prey on most plants. They will chomp off a 2 or 3 year old tree at the base, and strip the leaves off of the lower limbs of older trees. Imagine my surprise to walk out and see a whole you could drive a car through in my Lavender Twist. They had eaten leaves, branches, twigs, everything but the trunk. I know that many do not like to hear this, but they are as bad as any noxious pest we freely kill - rats, mice, or groundhogs, for a few. So destructive, populations soaring as they have found new buffets of food as the gardeners foolishly believe that there is anything you can grow that the deer will not learn to eat. OK, that was my pet peeve for the day. Plant those redbuds, make the world a more beautiful place, one tree at a time. Happy gardening!

Thanks for the information on the Forest Pansy redbuds. As it turns out, I did order one last year from Forest Farm nursery. The one I bought was very small...basically just a twig with hardly any roots on it. This spring, several nice leaves came out on it...and then it happened: Something during the night ate it down to the ground. Probably a rabbit, but I'm not sure. The little twig never did try to leaf up again. I was so frustrated that I've abandoned this particular project for the foreseeable future. That's life in the garden, right? Some victories, some defeats. Anyway, that's what happened to my Forest Pansy. But thanks again for your responses! Ron

Thanks, Carrie. I had sent a note to our Forestry agent, and here is his reply: "The best I can tell from the photos is that heartwood is exposed at the site of the split. In an effort to save the tree, the torn limb should be removed, cutting carefully to minimize the size of the wound. Pruning paint should be applied to completely cover all exposed wood. There is no guarantee this will work since heartwood is exposed. "Removal of the torn portion will leave the tree misshapen but it will be easier to manage compared to trying to tie the tree in such a manner as to attempt a natural rebinding of the wood at the site of the tear. Normally, with heartwood exposure it is only a matter of time and degree of exposure before the tree succumbs due to disease or insect invasion. "If you decide to remove the tree and replant another Forest Pansy Redbud, you may want to prune co-dominant branches to build a strong central leader."

It depends, Embo. Roses...in fact all the rosaceae family seem very affected by replant syndrome (I would be the first to admit it is still not fully understood by me) so I wouldn't plant a related plant in that spot for 5 years or so. There are various tricks, such as planting in cardboard boxes (using fresh soil) and, a few years ago, there were some really interesting experiments done using zeolite (along with various arbuscular myccorhizae (sp?). Soil sterilisation is still used (not by me) and, in fairness, it hasn't been an intractable issue - tends to stop the endless shuffling about of plants a bit but hery, there are so many choices. Replant is a different kettle of fish than verticillium (which is still affecting my redbud, rootstock or not) so I would never plant a cotinus, redbud or other susceptible plant in this spot. I know replant is often not much discussed in the US - what would be your take on that? I struggled, over on the antique rose forum, to explore the issues surrounding this mysterious (and according to some people) imaginary, plant syndrome. It is one of those things which are a 'given' - much like soil amendments...until proven otherwise.