Eastern Redbud
Cercis canadensis
A small native tree that lines its bare branches with rosy pink to lavender flowers in early spring. It's at home at a woodland edge or beneath taller trees, and makes a fine specimen for a small garden. Plant it young and for keeps, in soil that drains, and water it in summer droughts.
- Mature size
- 25 × 30 ft
- 7.5 × 9 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4b–9a
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Mar
Eastern Redbud at its mature size
A mature Eastern Redbud grows 20 to 30 feet tall and 25 to 35 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What Eastern Redbud looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Mar
Bare zigzag twigs, dark brown-black bark, a few brown seed pods hanging.
In flower · Apr
Leafless branches covered in small magenta-pink pea flowers.
In leaf · May–Sep
Dense broad heart-shaped medium-green leaves on every branch, keeping the open spreading vase-shaped crown, not a rounded ball.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Heart-shaped leaves a muted, patchy yellow to yellow-green, some still green, not saturated gold.
Photos
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Growing Eastern Redbud
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Plains and Mountain West.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Specimen, deer resistant, and pollinators
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Eastern North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Eastern Redbud, that’s about 30 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Eastern Redbud in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other redbuds
Western Redbud
Flame Thrower Redbud
Eastern Redbud
Forest Pansy RedbudAll drawn to the same scale.