Plant Oklahoma Redbud Tree for Its Spring Flowers, Small Size and Glossy Leaves
A lovely small tree for the garden.
Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) is a North American native tree beloved for its bright pink spring flowers. Its small size makes it easy to add to gardens. The naturally occurring variety called 'Oklahoma' redbud amplifies what we love about this small garden tree: it has darker, richer pink flowers and an even shorter stature, topping out under 20 feet tall. Plus, 'Oklahoma' redbud can tolerate a bit of drought better than the species and other cultivars, thanks to its evolution on the thin limestone slopes of the southcentral US.
Common name: Texas redbud, 'Oklahoma' redbud
Botanical name: Cercis canadensis var. texensis 'Oklahoma'
Exposure: Full sun, part shade, dappled shade
Flowers: Bright purple-magenta flowers open on twigs and branches in early to mid-spring, before the tree leafs out. Individual flowers are small but very numerous. The blossoms make redbud very useful to pollinators.
Foliage: Rounded and markedly glossy, dark green leaves call attention to the tree throughout summer. These turn light yellow in the fall.
Habit: 'Oklahoma' redbud is a small, multitrunked deciduous tree reaching 12 to 18 feet tall, making it more compact than the straight Cercis canadensis species. It is often grown with multiple trunks, giving it an overall vase shape. It has a rounded crown that can span 15 to 25 feet.
Related: Get ideas for showcasing and underplanting vase-shaped shrubs and trees like 'Oklahoma' redbud.
Origin: Cercis canadensis is native to woods and stream banks of the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Lower Midwest regions of the United States. Its variety texensis is an especially compact, drought-adapted version that evolved on dry slopes of southern Oklahoma, central Texas and northeast Mexico. (This variety was once recognized as its own species, Cercis reniformis, but has since been reclassified as a type of C. canadensis.) Its cultivar 'Oklahoma' is a naturally occurring, even more compact variety that was discovered in the state of Oklahoma in 1964.
How to grow 'Oklahoma' redbud: Plant 'Oklahoma' redbud in full sun, part shade or dappled shade. It requires well-drained soil and regular watering. Apply mulch to conserve soil moisture.
Remove dead or damaged branches if they appear; otherwise pruning is not usually necessary for this small tree. If you do wish to prune for shaping, do so just after flowering ends.
Apply a slow-release fertilizer labeled for use on trees and shrubs in early spring, or top-dress the soil around the tree annually with compost or compost-and-mulch blend to improve soil nutrients. Regular application of compost or compost-and-mulch will also improve soil drainage and texture over time.
Once established, this small flowering tree can take short dry spells and reportedly copes with these better than other eastern redbud cultivars. However, it has a reduced winter hardiness when compared to redbuds rated to USDA Zone 4. 'Oklahoma' redbud is hardy in Zones 6 through 9.
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Image credits: Detail by woodleywonderworks/CC BY 2.0; Entire tree by Famartin/Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
