Redbud trees in the Pacific Northwest

Hi - I'm new to DG. I have four Forest Pansy Redbuds, young trees from 6 to 10 feet tall, respectively. I see a few flower buds form each spring, but they never open, just fall off. The trees do very well otherwise in my landscape, all are in full sun and on the drip irrigation system. The fall color last year was just incredible. This tree is one of my favorites, but I just can't think of anything I'm doing that would cause them not to flower. Any ideas?
Debbie

Frostbit, no pollination. Sometimes our late frosts nip flower buds and delay the bees. Hi and where is Camano?

Welcome, Catma33. You came to the right place for great gardening info as well as good company. Check out the threads about the roundup gathering later this month. You are welcome to join us.

I know several people who have had a hard time growing Forest Pansy. They said their trees didn't make it through the Winter. So you must be doing something really right by those trees even though they are dropping their flowers.

Camano Island, next to Whidbey Island, north of Everett. I see redbuds blooming their hearts out on Gardening by the Yard, which is filmed in Oklahoma. Surely the weather there is much harsher than Puget Sound.

I'm landscaping an 1-1/4 acres from scratch, this is supposed to be my dream landscape after having only had a small garden in the past. I have really bad soil, the standard glacial till, in other words sand and rocks, not much top soil -- I have no mud and no puddles on the property. I was really worried when I bought the property and started digging. However, compost can never be underestimated. I keep adding it at least twice a year and over time it turns that awful soil into some of the best, fluffy soil, with perfect drainage. I've heard people say they have trouble with redbuds and clay soil, so maybe my trees are happy because of that drainage. I think it got down to 7 degrees and 2 feet of snow this winter and no freezing damage on any of my trees. I have more problems with the wind than the temps, we get the mix master effect of the wind slamming us from all directions. Irrigation was a major problem as well, but I got that worked out. I also got a really good and cheap home made deer repellant from a neighbor. Fellow gardeners are so great, they love to share, and they have helped me so much.

I think I have planted at least 50 small trees and maybe 30 shrubs so far. My neighbors were looking out their windows and laughing at me this winter as I was out in my yard with rubber boots struggling through 2 feet of snow to get to each tree and knock the heavy snow off with a broom -- hey, I went to a lot of work to plant all those trees, they're my babies, and I wasn't going to let a little snow break them down.

It is great to have found a forum of gardeners and that it is local to this area. Now that I have a much bigger garden, I'm planting things I've only read about or seen on the TV garden shows. I have made plenty of mistakes like planting something in the wrong place, not realizing it would get so BIG, like hardy geranium and japanese anemone. I guess if everything was predictable, it wouldn't be much fun.

My mom used to have a redbud at her home in Port Orchard. Pure clay soil. It did well and bloomed.

My Forest Pansy was in a very well-drained soil, with fairly consistent moisture. All was well until they installed a road on the other side of my fence - the roots were severed by their equipment & the chemicals they used on the road ran off & killed a number of the surrounding plants. It had only bloomed once - the late frost situation is one that effects anything that flowers early. I'm still looking for a sheltered spot to plant another one.

It sounds like you are creating a fabulous garden at your place! What kind of trees have you planted? You are lucky to have good drainage. That is something I can only dream about. I have glacial leftovers also, but mine is clay and rocks and a shallow layer of topsoil.

I don't know what my friends were doing wrong with their Redbuds. One of them decided to plant a maple instead to replace it.

Now I am in great need of a cheap homemade deer repellent. I have had them leaping my 7 foot fence and crawling under as well. I think the drought has made them desperate. Would you be willing to share the recipe?

It's good to hear that a redbud bloomed in Port Orchard, so I have hope.

I broke the budget on trees because I wanted to get them in the ground first, they take so long to grow. The previous owners cut down every tree on the property and left only a couple on the property line, only because they weren't sure of the location. They didn't care, they just wanted the cash. So I have full sun and no privacy. I've been here 3 years and have been gathering cedar, douglas fir, grand fir, and hemlock seedlings. I also got some giant sequoias from the Snohomish spring plant sale at the Monroe fairgrounds...a really economical place to get native plants and trees! The rest are ornamental trees, the ones I could never have in the past with a small garden -- red maple, sugar maple, magnolia, japanese maples, snowbell and pink chimes, dogwoods, wheeping cherry (both the grafted kind and the real thing), stewartia, and some fruit trees. I hit the fall clearance plant sales at the nurseries or wait and get trees and shrubs bare root -- the price doubles after they put it in a pot. I'm pretty much done as far as the trees are concerned. Maybe years from now after the cedars and firs get big, I will add some understory trees in their shade.

Deer repellant -- I have about 10 deer in my yard every morning, fawns too, but I don't think they would bother jumping a 7-foot fence, they don't jump my neighbor's 5-foot fence. This recipe may not work for you, but it is cheap and worth a try. The deer don't touch anything that I protect with it. Just take an egg (not a rotten one) and mix it with a fork like you would if you were making scrambled eggs, add several liberal dashes of cayenne pepper, then pour it into an empty plastic 16 oz water bottle, the small kind that come in cases of 24 or 36. Anyway, put the cap on and shake well. Then just dribble it over the plants you want to protect. It works well against squirrels too -- they go after my rhodie buds just before they open -- so mad when you go out and find what's left of the colorful pieces of the flower bud shreded on the ground. The smell won't stop them but the bad taste of the pepper sure does. Let me know if it works.

I've been told that redbuds don't bloom well here because they need a colder winter (like lilacs). I don't have any direct experience with that, though - and I don't know how it applies to Forest Pansy.

All I know for sure, the deer love my Redbud. The poor thing! Most of it died back after our hard winter. I pruned off the old wood. Now I just have a bare trunk with beautiful red leaves on the top. Various nibbles by the deer. But, what beautiful leaves. I am going to put a trellis up against it and grow a clematis.

Hello marymyers of Poulsbo. Welcome to the PNW. Hope you stick around and visit with us. Do your deer like clematis? Mine do.

catma, could you use some curly willow saplings. I have at least 2 and could send you as many cuttings as you wanted. They grow FAST.

Welcome to the forum, marymyers and catma. It's good to have you around. Please think about attending the roundup in Graham the weekend after next. It's a good chance to swap plants and put faces with names.

Kathy

Willowwind2, I'm going to have to add a Redbud to my landscape after reading about it here. Catma, I have the soil you talk about. and it took copious amounts of compost and Tagro to get the soil I wanted. I just keep adding it year after year. oh, and the rocks, come in handy. I've been making concrete walkways 3 feet at a time. the bigger ones have many uses on the hillside. good luck with all your other trees. I'll be the transformation of your garden is well worth the expense and work. do you have any Hostas under those trees? Jim

I don't really need any more trees right now, I'm maxed out with seedlings in pots in my driveway, but thank you.

I haven't tried putting out very many plants under the new trees, mainly because my irrigation system is pretty much maxed out since I am on a community well with restricted water. I have some perennial beds with two hostas, but not much shade. I will have to wait until the trees mature and can get off the irrigation, then I have a feeling that the garden will change from full sun to mostly shade and I can go wild with hostas and some of my favorite ferns. My neighbor's yard is mostly shade, with just a little morning sun. I am so jealous and she never has to water anything.

Have you ever done something that seemed like a good idea at the time, but you didn't really think it through? I planted 200 daffodil bulbs under 8 young deciduous trees last winter. It was really pretty this spring, but I forgot about having to let the foliage die back before cutting it off. The weeds took over and what a mess.