Redbuds in the Powell Gardens Landscape

Eastern Redbuds (Cercis canadensis) have been in glorious bloom from Powell Gardens' Gatehouse through the gardens and into its wildlands. Here is a planting off to the side of the Gatehouse where some flowering dogwoods (in white) set them off. We planted redbuds at the gatehouse landscape as they are such a great choice for beauty through the seasons and a native plant that reflects our spirit of place.


Redbuds adorn the front of the Visitor Center; someday they will arch over and shade the walks from the parking lot to the building. There are a few whitebuds planted to give a bit of sparkle and depth to the planting. They are naturally an understory (small) tree doing well at the edge of a woods but give a nice "human scale" to a landscape. They set off the huge presettlement trees of shagbark hickory (center in the above image) and Swamp White Oak (right) along with a middle aged Pin Oak (left).


Redbuds are often multi-trunked and the trunks often recline with age. Each tree develops a distinct form so I think of them as living sculptures. If you like lollipop trees, then the redbud is not a good choice for you. It is also not a good choice for restricted spaces. Redbuds are about as long-lived as us and can be rejuvenated by removing old trunks and allowing basal sprouts to replace them. They are short-lived because they are partially pioneer species. They colonize old fields and disturbed areas and become a nurse plant to future trees that eventually grow up and shade them out. Rebuds bloom best in full sun but will be OK in light shade with a lighter bloom.


Redbud trunks are a work of art always covered with blue-gray and chartreuse lichens and throwing off a few clusters of flowers to boot! The lichens cause no harm and are epiphytic; remember Alice algae and Freddy fungus to a lichen to each other in this organism of two. At the base of a redbud trunk the old bark flakes off to reveal maroonish inner bark.


Redbud trunks often become gnarled and hollow. Again, think living sculpture with redbud!


Here redbuds are a good companion to a Wildgoose Plum (Prunus munsoniana) just past the Gatehouse.


Redbuds are often wild companions with Redcedars (Juniperus virginiana), which set off their blooms to a tee. This composition is near the Gatehouse.


Oklahoma Redbud is a selection from a more southerly subspecies (or species?) of redbud (Cercis canadensis ssp. reniformis). Oklahoma Redbud is slightly later blooming with rosier flowers, glossier leaves and has a more upright, compact stature. It is a better choice for boulevards and other restricted spaces. Oklahoma Redbud is actually a cloned cultivar selected from the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma but has proved hardy to the Greater Kansas City area.


Powell Gardens has an extensive collection of redbuds from around the world. This is the only known hardy selection of Chinese Redbud (Cercis chinensis 'Ames') from the North Central Experiment Station in Ames, Iowa. You can view them at the Visitor Center trolley stop. It is a large shrub with earlier blooming, rosy flowers. It is not available at nurseries, which carry the selections 'Avondale' and 'Don Egolf'. Both of these are hardy to only -10F. If we have a cold winter like in decades past, they will be killed to the ground.

Here is the rare Afghan Redbud (Cercis griffithii) from Afghanistan. It has flowers almost the color of our native redbud and you can see it at the south end of the Visitor Center. It is also not hardy below -10F but we have not had weather that cold in more than a decade.

"RED"buds, Kansas City's Premier Spring Flowering Tree

From Powell Gardens to across Greater Kansas City the Eastern Redbuds (Cercis canadensis) are in their glory. The flowers are not red but a blue-pink--like raspberry sherbet--a distinctly North American color. It is such a refreshing hue, complementing the emerging acid lime greens of spring. Underplant native blue wildflowers like violets, woodland phlox, Jacob's ladder, Virginia bluebells and blue-eyed-mary and you will make your planting sing. Redbuds are named "canadensis" because they were found west of the Appalachians (once all west of them was called "Canada.") They are a great plant that celebrates the spirit of America's heartland from the lower Midwest to the mid-South.

Here's a redbud you will meet on the way to the Powell Gardens chapel. The white flowering tree in the foreground is the Plant of Merit cultivar 'Royal White' and the best white flowering selection of "whitebud."

Here is a mix of wild and planted redbuds near the parking lot to the Powell Gardens chapel. A seedling flowering dogwood is just starting to bloom too (lower right). The chapel landscape at Powell Gardens is where we display every variety of redbud available and there are many new selections of this beautiful native plant.


Whitebuds (Cercis canadensis 'Alba' ) adorn the chapel landscape and always look best with a few "true" redbuds for contrast.


The pearl or blush pink flowering redbud is the cultivar 'Pauline Lily.' It is difficult to find in nurseries and usually available only at specialty mail-order nurseries. Look for our tree by the Chapel trolley stop.


This pale pink blooming redbud is the cultivar 'Rubye Atkinson' and can be seen on the meadow side of the walk to the chapel.

T
he redbud cultivar 'Tennessee Pink' has shocking true cherry pink flowers!


'Tennessee Pink' redbud close up!
Come out and see Powell Gardens' collection of redbuds and take a special moment to bask in the beauty of this most showy of our wildflowers. More about redbuds and what a fantastic landscape tree they are in a future blog.

Plums' Bloom Herald Spring's Butterflies

My hands down favorite time of year is now: when the wild plums bloom. They herald the season of spring butterflies, many of which can be seen at no other time. Wild Plums are valuable plants for the landscape as their pollen and nectar rich flowers attract a plethora of beneficial insects and pollinators. Last night I hiked up on the Byron Shutz Nature Trail and admired their flowers abuzz with life from honeybees to tiger swallowtails. Their aroma brings back fond memories from childhood on my grandparent's Iowa farm, where they used to bloom down the fence rows. My grandmother would make a wild plum-apple jelly from them that was always a treat. Their scent brings back her laugh and feel of her loving hands. I have written an unpublished story of the wild plum and how it should be cultivated in every Midwestern landscape.

Here's a close up bloom of a wild plum transplanted next to the hort cabin. There are actually four species native in the area and all are relatively similar: American Plum (Prunus americana), Wildgoose Plum (Prunus munsoniana), Hortulan Plum (Prunus hortulana) and the depicted Bigtree or Mexican Plum (Prunus mexicana). I've seen all but the Hortulan Plum growing wild at Powell Gardens and all will be displayed in the Heartland Harvest Garden.

Matt Bunch discovered this Luna Moth on the Hort Cabin's front porch. It is my favorite of our wonderful moths and usually its first brood emerges when the plums bloom--right on schedule again this year! Pairing insect emergence with blooming plants is much better than looking at the calendar--it is officially known as "coincide" and it is especially important for pest control. I found another beautiful Luna moth up on the Nature Trail sitting on the prairie grasses. Adult Luna Moths have no mouth parts and cannot feed, but their caterpillars eat the leaves of walnuts (and hickories, persimmon and sweetgum, though I have never found them there).

I saw 19 species of butterflies yesterday including numerous Eastern Tiger Swallowtails. This one is sipping salts from wet gravel and he let me take his picture. The Powell Gardens Byron Shutz Nature Trail is a great place to observe butterflies but is extremely wet with our more than double average rainfall. Be sure to wear waterproof duck shoes or boots as we cannot fix wet areas without causing more damage (ruts) at this time.

I saw more Goatweed Leafwings (a velvety orange butterfly) than ever before yesterday as well as numerous Falcate Orangetips, which I always feel are indicators of a good season and don't necessarily emerge every year. The orangetips are a butterfly that can only be seen in April--small white butterflies with bright almost fluorescent orange wingtips on the males. I was relieved to see Monarch butterflies too! You may know they suffered a devastating winter because of lumber poaching in their tiny overwintering "preserves" in Mexico. Look up KU's Monarch Watch web site for all the gory details. I have seen at least five Monarchs that made it back!