I've seen an Oklahoma Redbud and they are gorgeous! A much prettier color than native redbud I think. I have Forest Pansy which has purplish leaves but the color of the flowers is about the same as native redbud. There is one called Appalachian Red I would like to see. I had several seedlings that came up in a load of mulch one year, just native redbuds. I put four of them over in my fence row and one in my back yard and traded some away. I didn't have the heart to just toss them. They're common but I could never get tired of them.

I plan to prune the centerpiece American persimmon at least a bit, while keeping it's natural shape. It'll also provide shade against the sun. The house faces almost due west with no shade on that side of the house. The persimmon tree will have some room to grow, while the other fruit trees in the front garden need some height restrictions placed on them through the open pruning techniques we're using. I hae considered pruning the persimmon into a semi-vase or partially open shape of some sort, which should keep the mature height somewhere well under 60 ft. Providing I live long enough to keep it pruned up at the proper intervals. LOL. Mulberry Knob, we are also looking for two paw-paws. If you happen to learn of the whereabouts of any small ones,lemme know. Chances are, it'll be better to go ahead and just buy them in order to get the size I want. Those are on the planting diagram for the front garden. They go in the northeast corner of the front garden, closer to the house. A bed is already prepared for them. I'll prune those the same way we're doing the rest of the fruit trees - a combination of open/vase and espalier techniques. Believe it or not, two spice bushes are on our planting diagram for the front garden, for exactly the reasons you've listed. They'll be planted on either side of the walkway on the north side of the garden, next to the long bed. Yeah, I'm after some of the oddball stuff that provides different nutrients while adding to the variety of flavors, colors and textures we'll have in the garden. All of those bushes and trees will also offer some noise mitigation for the day time trafic around here. It's wuiet at night and on the weekends, but during business hours, it can be hard to hear someone standing just a few feet away. That, or I'm gettin' old. One of the two. We still have the driveway bed to play with, too. The only thing we've planned for it are two fig trees. The rest of that bed is only three feet wide, but would work for espaliered trees, bushes, vines and such. The soil in that bed has already been amended enough for those types of plants. Most of the sassafras trees would go along our back fence somewhere. ...mebbe. That, or in the driveway bed. They're really an understory tree, if I remember my youthful woodland wanderings. They weren't really on the list, but then again, we haven't really planned anything for the back yard, either. Not even a bubble diagram. Jusrt, "Something, something' for fence beds and 'something, something' for the center of the yard" is as far as we've gotten. I sent you an email through your profile. Lemme know if you've recieved it, please.

There's always hope, and you really have nothing to lose by watching and waiting and seeing what it does in the spring. I am so far south in OK that Texas sits to my west, south and east, and we have dozens and dozens of native redbuds growing as understory trees in our 10+ acres of woodland. The ones that do the best are the ones that are growing in dappled shade, or on the eastern or northern edge of the woodland where they have little exposure to sunlight in the mid-day or afternoon. The ones that don't do well are the ones foolish enough to sprout on the southern edge of the woodland, right where the woodland meets the grassland. They don't necessarily die, but they struggle with the full-day sun in July and August of every year. One ridiculously silly redbud sprouted in the worst possible clay in full sun in a location several hundred feet from any water source about 10 years ago. We assumed a bird planted it there. That little tree has finally attained a height of 8'. Its foliage yellows, browns and drops every summer. I always think that "this time" it has had all it can stand and it is going to die. Then, the following year, it leafs out and is just fine until mid-summer heat and drought arrive. I never would have put that tree there, and I don't water it or feed it. If it lives, it lives. If it dies, it dies. The fact that it has survived so long in such unsuitable conditions is an indication of how tough redbuds can be. However, if you're trying to grow an understory tree in full sun, you may be fighting a losing battle. It isn't that it necessarily will die, but more that it just will have periods of time when it is very unhappy---and it shows. Both Chinese pistache and desert willow are very tough, strong survivors that can tolerate almost any conditions. Both of them are stronger and tougher than redbuds, so it doesn't surprise me that they are fine even though maybe it is not. That's exactly what I would expect. Desert willows, by the way, are deceptively named, being neither desert plants nor willows. They actually are closely related to trumpet creeper vines (a plant about which it is commonly said "they won't die and you can't kill them"). I love redbud trees. They are so gorgeous for that couple of weeks in spring when they are in bloom, but I've never planted one on purpose. I'll never buy one and plant it on purpose. I just think that there are many higher-quality trees that deserve a spot in a landscape and that look better year-round than the redbuds do. I prefer to give prime landscape space to plants that are not going to struggle so much in the heat of the summer. Since we built our house on higher ground in full sun with dense, compacted red clay soil, the area around our house is not a suitable location for redbuds, which do fine here on lower ground, with sandy soil, in the woodland along the creekbeds. That is where they belong. So, my suggestion is to evaluate your landscape and ask yourself if the redbud will be happy there long-term. Will it get the afternoon shade it prefers? Or, at least will it have shade from other trees in the middle of the day? Is it planted in a place that makes sense for it? So often, we choose plants we like and put them where we want them instead of putting them where they need to be. Is this redbud growing in a place where it will thrive equally well in hot, dry years and in cooler wetter years? If it isn't, you have to decide if it is reasonable to expect it to thrive where it is growing or if maybe it needs to be transplanted to a location that would be better for it. Your tree's struggles this year may be totally related to the heavy irrigation required to get the new sod to grow. Or, it may be a sign the tree just isn't in the best location that gives it what it needs. Good luck with your tree, and I hope it rebounds next year.

Thanks for all the input. In Montreal we only Have one high-end nursery that sells these and the big box stores do not. It is a plain cercis canadensis. The grower is in Ontario with perhaps a milder zone. I don't think it was dug up from the wild. This one overwintered here in our conditions at the nursery and has done beautifully in terms of flowering and health. The price therefore might reflect this. I paid 450 Canadian for a 2.5 m high one. About 325 us? Even the small ones (4 feet) were almost 200 cad. I might be ripped off but I almost don't care? Supply and demand.... I think i will go for it. If you allow me to come back and ask questions :)