Consider Planting Redbud in Your Yard

Redbud or Cercis canadensis:
Redbud is a showy but small tree and state tree of Oklahoma. Redbud shines early in spring (one of the first flowering plants) with leafless branches of magenta buds and pink flowers. Quickly following the flowers come new green leaves which turn a dark, blue-green and are uniquely heart-shaped.
Dr. Mike Dirr has this to say about redbud, "No equal, no competitor, can be found among small flowering landscape trees - the [spring] stage is reserved for this native species."

Habit and Range:
Redbud grows into a small tree of about 20' to 30' tall. Some find an excess of 2-4 inch seedpods unappealing in the urban landscape. Not easy to transplant, redbud should be moved in its dormant rootball.
The range of eastern redbud is from New Jersey and southern Pennsylvania northwest to southern Michigan, southwest into southeastern Nebraska, south to central Texas, and east to central Florida. A stray population of redbud extends from the Trans-Pecos and south Texas into Mexico.

Strong Cultivars: 'Alba', 'Forest Pansy', 'Pinkbud'

Redbud Hardiness Zones:
Redbud hardy through zone 4...
See Plant Hardiness Zones

Expert Comments:
"Redbud has neither red buds nor red flowers, but is none the less one of our most outstanding ornamental trees...Its arching branches are convered with pretty rose-pink blossoms in early spring, as colorful as those of any Asian flowering tree." - Guy Sternberg, Native Trees for North American Landscapes

"Can be used for every imaginable landscape situation, from the front yard of a Florida residence to the slopes of a New England freeway.."- Michael Dirr, Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs