Should I remove or save my eastern redbud?
Eastern Redbud isn't a habitual problem species, so a sound one is usually worth an opinion before it comes out. Redbud is the small tree everyone loves and nobody plans to remove — magenta flowers straight off bare wood in April, native to Indiana, and one of the standard native swaps being recommended for Callery pear. It ends up on a quote because it is short-lived and dies limb by limb: a 20-year-old redbud will be losing whole branches to canker while the rest of it still blooms beautifully.
How to tell which one you've got
Redbud decline is branch-by-branch rather than whole-tree — one limb wilts and browns in midsummer with the dead leaves hanging on, and there is a sunken, cracked, blackened canker where it meets live wood. Stress is leaf scorch or early yellowing in an August drought on a tree that flowers and leafs out fine the next April; dying is a second and third limb going the same way in consecutive years, driven by Botryosphaeria canker or verticillium wilt with brown streaking in the sapwood — neither responds to fungicide, so the honest conversation is staged removal, not treatment.
The structural question
Redbud ranks resistant on Midwest ice-damage lists and the crown is too small and too short to threaten a roof, so it rarely generates a storm call at all. Its actual structural weakness is the low, wide, multi-stemmed habit full of tight V-shaped forks with included bark — those split under wet snow or a heavy glaze, and once a redbud splits at the base union there is usually no tree left worth saving.
Related
- How much does it cost to remove an eastern redbud?→
- When should an eastern redbud be pruned?→
- Are eastern redbud roots a problem for foundations or pipes?→
- Is my eastern redbud dying or just stressed?→
- How does an eastern redbud hold up in a storm?→
- How much does it cost to remove an american basswood?→
- Should I remove or save my american basswood?→
- When should an american basswood be pruned?→