Instead of the Dogwood Festival, Charlottesville should have a Redbud Festival. The lovely tree/bushes are certainly outdoing themselves this spring. Redbuds are not exactly trees. They are deciduous shrubs, but they look like trees and we call them trees. So, trees they are, and they are everywhere in central Virginia.
Many people buy redbuds and plant them, but far more just come up on their own. They especially take hold along roadsides where fescue has not taken over. I was driving along John Warner Parkway one morning this week and counted ten redbuds in a 300-foot stretch – all volunteer, native plants. Redbuds are among the first of our trees to bloom. They grow from twenty to thirty feet tall and up to 15 feet wide, and as such, they must fight and claw their way to find the sun’s rays with the larger
Redbuds are extremely hardy, growing from the northern tips of Florida to as far north as minus twenty-degree territory and they are prolific. The flowers are pollinated by long-tongued bees like carpenter bees and the fruits are pea-like pods that are scattered by birds. The flowers are totally edible. In parts of Appalachia, small, green redbud twigs are used to season venison and possum The Indians ate redbud flowers both raw and boiled. They are as versatile as they are beautiful – but they’re definitely not red. I’d say magenta or deep lilac, but whatever color you call them, they are beautiful.
