Re: [gardeners] spring walks
Sherryl Fawx (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 07 May 2002 15:55:08 -0700
Hi Penny,
Sorry to respond so late. DH & I just got back from a few days vacation in
Mendocino. A nice place to celebrate our anniversary. The rhodies there
are just peaking and the tourist season is just beginning. Anyway, to
answer your question, the western redbud is Cercis occidentalis, native to
Calif., Arizona & Utah. The eastern redbud is Cercis canadensis. I'm not
personally familiar with the eastern variety, but from the description in
my Sunset Western Garden Book, I'd say the western redbud is likely to be
shorter & shrubbier than its eastern counterpart, with darker pink flowers
and doesn't need as much water. It's quite brilliant when in bloom, with
those magenta flowers. In my yard, it's growing between a toyon & and a
ceanothus. For a few weeks the magenta flowers of the redbud kind of float
above the deep blue of the ceanothus in bloom.
Sherryl
Northern Calif., USDA zone 9b
(There are tiny peaches on my dwarf containerized peach tree!)
At 11:58 PM 04/25/2002 -0400, you wrote:
<snip>
>Being an Easterner, I have to ask: what's a Western redbud? We've just
>come from St.Louis, MO, where the redbuds, a few pink dogwoods, and a
>few brilliant azaleas were blooming, and last week the tulips which were
>planted everywhere were all open. There must be one redbud for every
>single
>house in St.Louis!
<snip>
>Penny, NY