Redbud 'Merlot'Redbuds provide a glorious announcement of spring’s arrival with their showy flowers beaming on bare stems. This high-value crop deserves space and attention in your operation.
And Denny Werner, a breeder at North Carolina State University, made two spectacular finds, adding to the redbud’s long list of attributes.Cercis ‘Merlot’ is a canadensis and texensis cross that features glossy, dark purple foliage and reddish-purple flowers. When Werner began breeding redbuds in the late 1980s, his original goal was to pair purple leaves with texensis parentage.
He made an exciting discovery on the NCSU campus — a cross between ‘Forest Pansy’ and ‘Texas White’ that resulted from cross pollination. Armed with 120 first-generation trees from that natural cross pollination, he planted them out at the university’s Sandhills Research Station.
“I planted them in relative isolation, as far away as possible from other redbud families and let them continue to cross pollinate,” he explains.
He grew out a large number of the second-generation trees and selected what ultimately became ‘Merlot.’
The selection was grafted and tested at a Tennessee nursery, and was trialed at his own site in North Carolina, as well as in Oklahoma.
“Being trialed in Oklahoma was particularly useful for ‘Merlot’ because of the region’s hot summers, high winds and cold winters. That site confirmed that ‘Merlot’ was superior in performance to ‘Forest Pansy,’ he recalls.
Redbud 'Merlot'
Because of the texensis parentage, ‘Merlot’ withstands the heat and is drought tolerant once established. With an upright, vase-shaped habit, it grows to 12 feet high with a spread of 15 feet. Use it as a specimen tree or plant it in groups. Growers and landscape contractors may market it to cities as a beautiful and successful urban tree.
Werner’s next redbud prize was the discovery of ‘Ruby Falls,’ the first purple-leaved weeping redbud on the market. He crossed ‘Covey’ (the only weeping cultivar in the trade at that time) with ‘Forest Pansy.’ This time he placed large container trees in a screen cage and let a hive of bumblebees do all the pollinating. After several years of planting and selecting, he eventually winnowed it down to five candidates. The same nurseries that helped him with ‘Merlot’ also grafted and trialed ‘Ruby Falls.’
It’s been in the trade for about four years with all positive feedback, Werner says.
“It’s a wonderful specimen tree. It hasn’t disappointed me at all,” he adds.
The large, heart-shaped purple leaves of ‘Ruby Falls’ cascade some 6 feet. It also delivers a full crown of foliage and demonstrates excellent branching. Rose-purple flowers are abundant throughout spring.
In summer, the foliage turns burgundy before transitioning to green in late summer. It’s a striking tree in a large container or as a specimen in the garden. Something so stunning will command a lot of attention and a high price point.
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