Sometimes a truly unique and valuable plant comes along that knocks our socks off. When you see your Pink Pom Poms Redbud in bloom you will know why we fell so hard for this special plant. You might know redbud trees, but this is one that takes it to a whole new level. Smothered to ground level, and even directly from the trunk, with large clusters of blooms that resemble lilacs, this tree in bloom is truly something wonderful. The flowers are a distinctive purple-violet color that radiates all across the garden – a true ‘stand-out’ specimen. The glossy foliage is much more attractive than typical redbud leaves, and it has good golden fall coloring too. Plus, this tree is more sun and drought-resistant than other redbuds, which can be touchy, and need regular watering. Within 10 years you will have a spectacular specimen 12 feet tall and wide, a real stand-out for your spring garden.

Growing the Pink Pom Poms Redbud

Size and Appearance

The Pink Pom Poms Redbud is a deciduous shrub that grows quickly into a substantial plant. It will reach 6 feet tall within just a few years, and 12 feet tall and wide in less than 10. It could grow as much as 20 feet tall in time. It has an upright, multi-stem form, with several strong limbs supporting a rounded crown of branches. They are leathery, rounded, and heart-shaped, tapering to a long pointed tip, and 4 inches across, with a smooth, glossy surface. The color is yellow-green when the leaves are new, turning to a rich dark green. In fall the leaves turn golden yellow.

Flowers appear in early spring, typically in April, before the leaves, and this is among the earliest shrubs to flower in the garden. Blooms are carried in clusters of around 10 flowers, growing on the branches, but also along the older limbs, even down to ground level. Flowering is profuse and abundant, making a spectacular display. Normally redbud flowers are like small pea-flowers with 5 petals, but this variety has flowers with around 35 petals packed into a dense ball of beauty. Each cluster becomes a rounded, slightly pendulous bouquet, and the purple-violet color, and the density of blooms, is reminiscent of lilac blossoms. Blooming lasts around 3 weeks, plus the several weeks the buds are colorful before opening. New leaves appear as the last blooms are falling (which they do naturally, leaving the bush clean) and this variety normally produces no seed pods.

Using the Pink Pom Poms Redbud in Your Garden

A drop-dead specimen shrub like this deserves a prominent place in your garden, to enjoy its annual show. Plant it on a large lawn as a specimen, or among other later-blooming shrubs in a border. Place it between evergreens, along the edges of a woodland, beside water or as a screen along a wall, fence or boundary. Since it blooms early, place it where it can be seen through windows during a cool spring. This is a flower display that must be seen to be believed, and even then you won’t believe your eyes.

Hardiness

The Pink Pom Poms Redbud grows well from zone 5 into zone 9. It is much more reliable in areas with hotter, drier summers than almost any other variety of redbud.

Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions

The best blooming of the Pink Pom Poms Redbud happens on plants growing in full sun. This variety is more resistant to full sun than others are, but it can also be grown with some afternoon shade, which is always beneficial. The ideal soil is rich, moist, and well-drained, but again, this is a variety that does well in much drier soils than others, and it will grow in ordinary soils, in full sun. Water regularly during its early years, but well-established plants have good drought resistance.

Maintenance and Pruning

Although it can be grazed on by deer, this plant is otherwise free of pests or diseases, and easy to grow. You can prune as needed, leaving it as a full shrub to the ground, or removing some lower branches as it grows to make it into a multi-stemmed small tree.

History and Origin of the Pink Pom Poms Redbud

The eastern redbud, Cercis canadensis, is a native tree that grows over a wide area of the country. It is usually found in areas without hot, dry summers, and enjoys moist soil. Towards the edges of its natural range, in Texas and Oklahoma, a unique variety, texensis is found. It is much more resistant to heat and dryness, and more attractive, with leathery, glossy dark-green leaves that turn golden yellow in fall. The cultivated form called ‘Oklahoma’ was found in 1964, and is an especially attractive specimen.

Redbuds with double flowers are rare, and the best is one called ‘Flame’, which was found as a wild plant in Illinois, back in 1902. As often happens with double flowers, seeds are only rarely produced by this tree, so Alex Neubauer, of Hidden Hollow Nursery, in Belvidere, Tennessee, was excited when he saw pods on a tree in his fields in the fall of 2005. He brought them to the redbud expert Dr. Dennis Werner, at North Carolina State University. Dr. Werner grew 278 seedlings from the batch of seeds, and when most of them flowered in 2008 he chose one that had double flowers of good color and attractive glossy leaves. Because of those leaves he was sure that the pollinator must have been a tree of ‘Oklahoma’ growing right beside the tree of ‘Flame’. This new tree was patented in 2017 with the name Pink Pom Poms – a perfect description of a truly unique redbud. It is described by botanists as an ‘intraspecific’ hybrid, because it is a cross between two varieties within the same species – Cercis canadensis var. canadensis and Cercis canadensis var. texensis.

Buying the Pink Pom Poms Redbud at the Tree Center

There is no doubt at all that this new redbud is incredibly outstanding, and destined to become an enduring favorite among gardeners. Be the first one on your block to display its beauty, but order right away – new plants of this quality are always in short supply, and soon sold out.