A Gift of Redbuds

We've had a couple of days of storms, bringing much needed rain, but it has remained hot and very humid.  Today the cold front should come through bringing lower humidity and I will feel like getting out to work in the garden again. I have been quite lazy the last couple of days.  The storm yesterday at about 11:00 AM had winds and rain so strong that it knocked over one of my big zinnia plants.  I just pulled it the rest of the way out, because it had planted itself in the herb garden and I need to get that area ready for its fall crop of parsley.
                                                                                                          Eastern Redbud


Tomorrow is Saturday, so I plan on getting about 3 good hours of gardening in before mid-day.  Especially because I am a transplanted Northerner, I just do not do heat well. Of course back at home in Wisconsin they had a killer summer as well.  Maybe I should move to Canada for the summer!

The other morning as I was out in the back tying up the moonflower vine that my friend Jackie had given me, she just happened to call at that very moment. She was so excited because her moonflower vines had flowered the night before, and her family had watched  the process.  I hope that mine flower soon.  The one I cut back is not yet flowering, but it sure is growing.  It is more than halfway to the roof of the porch today. Just as I was writing this, Jackie called again.(we must have a bit of telepathy going on)  She now has 4 moonflower vines blooming, and because the skies have been overcast in the mornings, the blooms are staying until 10:00 AM.  She says this is the first year she has had them, and has never seen them before and thanked me for telling her about them.( I had forgotten that I had)  It feels good to have brought someone so much pleasure, and she has done the same for me, by sharing so many of her plants and her garden expertise.(see moonflowers and morning glories blog for pictures)

As I was out weeding along the fence this week, I found 2 baby Eastern Redbud trees. (Cercis canadensis L.)  This is a wonderful gift, as my 15 foot tree had been destroyed in the tornado.  In March they are one of the first trees to bloom and they have bright pink/purple pea- shaped flowers.  The flowers appear before the heart- shaped leaves which are a beautiful yellow in the Autumn.  They brighten roadsides and wooded areas with early spring beauty.  They lift my heart, and my late mother-in-law, Polly, was especially fond of them so I always think of her when I see them.

The Eastern Redbuds can be planted in full or part sun and grow to about 30' .They have rounded crowns and spreading branches and long flat beanlike pods.  The Audubon Field Guide says that it is also called the Judas Tree, because according to myth, Judas Iscariot hanged himself on the related Cercis siliquastrum. The field guide also says that the flowers can be eaten as a salad, or fried.

I think that in the fall I will transplant one of the babies back over near  where I had the one I lost.
They grow fairly quickly, so maybe it  won't be too many years before I see those beautiful flowers in my garden again!
Susan