Since they are blooming now thought it was a good time to make a video about them!

Eastern redbud, Cercis canadensis, is best known for its showy, early season bloom of pink to purple flowers. The early bloom, happening before the tree has leaves, not only looks great but is an excellent source of pollen and nectar for native bees, honeybees, and butterflies. Redbud is also a caterpillar host plant and there are caterpillars that eat nothing but the leaves of the redbud. The small mature size of the redbud makes it a great fit for many yards, and as a bonus its flowers and young seed pods are edible and can be eaten raw or cooked!

Hope you enjoy it and please let me know how you liked it!

Thanks for watching, Anthony

Another good one Anthony. These are one of my favorites, espacially in the spring.

Good job as always... How are these close to the coast where we get high salt laden winds at times, Rhododendrons and azaleas struggle here , Thanks

They are surprisingly hardy too! In the summer of '65 I brought a Redbud from the Ozarks and planted it in my yard for my Mom. The Old Man hated anything to do with nature and ran over it with the mower like every other year, but it kept coming back. After I came home from the service it was still going strong, but died for some reason, I ended up cutting it off about 6" high, and darn if it didn't sprout from the stump, which eventually grew around the stump and it grew hail and hearty, and to this day, some 59 years later, it still; blooms.

Thanks for the video Anthony. Love the Redbud. They are very prolific here in SW MI.

gcs- as tough as redbud tends to be, they do not handle salt spray well.

BigBob - that is one tough redbud! We had a large redbud in front of the house that a larger tree obliterated when it came down in a storm last fall. There wasn't much left standing of the redbud and I cut it to the ground figuring it would stump sprout.

They appear to be fairly tough as I got a northern cultivar end of the season for $5 a couple years ago and it has survived on its own(no watering) thru -38 here in MN on the edge of our restored prairie area. It even sparsely flowered last spring. Hoping for more this!

They are prone to some kind of blight around here. It doesn't generally kill them, but does cause lesions on the bark resulting some limbs to die.

52Carl - redbud is susceptible to verticillium wilt (like a ton of other trees and plants) and it can cause branch die back and will eventually kill the tree. Mostly a problem with vegetatively propagated nursery stock, seed grown trees generally have no problem with it unless planted in infected soil.

Legend of the dogwood tree

I used to wait until the dogwood trees bloomed before going crappie fishing. This usually occurred right at Easter time locally.

Thanks everyone who gave it a watch!

What a nice tree. Thank you , Anthony.