Eastern Red Bud

First, this is probably not the right way to treat an eastern redbud. At all.

The start of this poor trees journey was a few years ago at a blue big box store. It had not only the unfortunate luck to be the only redbud, but to be the tree that caught my attention. I was looking for the summer sun beaten discount plants. Mostly the cheapest ones that might survive.

This time there were some trees. They were even marked 50% off. I was very suspicious.

I was also paranoid. While I was reading the tag (I was calling my dad) another customer came up a seriously started eyeing the tree & was trying to move in on it. She didn't  let up even when I was holding onto the trees trunk.

My dad loves redbuds. He has always wanted one but never got one because they were too expensive. So when I found out that the mystery tree was a redbud and only $12? I started calling him and guarding the tree. I will also point out the he decided that $12 was too much. I bought it anyway.

The very nice sales person was kind enough to get my "only looking" idiot self a cart. She was very nice and... also eying up the tree. She was telling me about how all the fruit trees had been mostly purchased by employees the moment they went on sale. It sounded like she had gotten twelve trees or something like that. She said it was a beautiful tree and if I wasn't interested she would probably grab it.

Again my idea self got paranoid so I passed on the store holding it. My dad, with the car that actually had a trunk was not going to show because stubbornness runs in the family. (My mom already said not to buy anything so that was out) I now needed a way to fit it into my car.

At this point my car was a beetle. Not the classic but the 'new'. It was lazer blue. And while I have hauled 4 giant pumpkins in it it can barely hold one suitcase if the seats up.

The tree was at least seven feet tall with an additional two feet from the pot it came in. The branches were at minimum three feet diameter.

I vetoed having the pot in the trunk with the branches sticking out to be at the mercy of my driving. So that left fitting it in my car. Right.

I somehow managed to do just that.

I also managed to get it back out. All without damaging the tree or making a huge mess. I hit my head at least twice on the inside roof of the car, so still a win.

The best win was the fact that my dad loved it.

Unfortunately the place we planted it was... not the best. It was a perfect view but the soil turned out to be more clay then the tree roots could deal with. Plus the deer would chow down on it. He got to see a few blooms over the years but not many.

Then last winter almost killed it. We had to chop it down to a little stump. It had a leaf bud or two. It was sad.

We dug it up, discovered that the roots were still in the original rootball, put it in a garage bag and took it to my house. Were it spent all summer in the garbage bag next to my barn. It has four two foot long branches now. I still don't know where I am planting it.