Not Only Alive But Flowering

lesa

Garden Master
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
6,645
Reaction score
570
Points
337
Location
ZONE 4 UPSTATE NY
Love it when mother nature has a pleasant surprise for us! I absolutely love the redbuds. I have tried and tried to get them to live. They grow everywhere around here- except in my yard!
 

Smart Red

Garden Master
Joined
Jan 10, 2012
Messages
11,303
Reaction score
7,405
Points
417
Location
South-est, central-est Wisconsin
We tried growing red bud. DH really liked them and wanted one in the yard. While it grew, it never did great, never flowered properly. Then one year it flowered in the spring! Beautiful! Then it flowered in the fall! Pretty, sort of. The following spring? Nada, zilch, nothing. The redbud was dead.

The dogwoods I tried didn't live long either. It seemed they got a fungal disease, Discula destructiva, and slowly died. My one success -- with a Red Kousa Dogwood -- is now doing poorly. I just noticed late last week that there is a large gash in one side of the trunk where the bark has been scrapped off which I suspect was done when the geo-guys' machines were coming and going in the yard. I doubt this tree will make it. My best bet is to try taking a cutting now and hope I can get a new tree to start.
 

thistlebloom

Garden Master
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
16,473
Reaction score
17,411
Points
457
Location
North Idaho 48th parallel
No @thistlebloom the purple weeping redbud was about 5 feet tall, winter killed top foot and half,no way near graft line. When I go up to house tonight will take photo.

Some weepers are double grafted, a trunk onto rootstock, and then on top of the upright trunk the weeping portion is grafted. Look at the top where the branches emerge, see if it looks like a knot. If the roots are still alive you could still have a green upright redbud, which is better than no redbud!
 

Smart Red

Garden Master
Joined
Jan 10, 2012
Messages
11,303
Reaction score
7,405
Points
417
Location
South-est, central-est Wisconsin
After writing that I don't have any dogwoods, I noticed what looks very much like a dogwood shrub setting buds in the orchard. Any chance dogwood root-stock would be used under either plum or peach trees? The tree in question died back to below the graft.
 
Top