I’m trying to source the pink pom poms cultivar of redbud for my wife this spring.
Plant me green has it for around 80 a tree, but several on here have said that their quality is not great, and I know that redbuds have recently been plagued with vascular streak dieback. Not looking to deal with a seller with a bad reputation and get a sick tree.
I also found it on the tree center for 129.
Prices seem to be all over the board.
Does anyone know of any independent nurseries selling this cultivar at a reasonable price with good quality?
I’d rather deal with a smaller seller then one of these big online nurseries that is charging an arm and a leg to have their products at the top of searches through Google, and then passing those prices on to the consumer.
About 16 years ago, I was in North Carolina Visiting Randy Gardner (tomato breeder). We walked through the greenhouse where there were a couple of tables full of redbud seedlings. A grad student was working on selecting a high anthocyanin redbud variety. Some of the seedlings (about 5%) were incredibly dark maroon/purple/black. Now think of the possibilities if a high anthocyanin line was crossed with the poly flowering trait such as Pink Pom Pom.
I find the double flower of the pink pom pom cultivar to be pretty awesome, especially combined with the fact that it is a sterile hybrid that does not produce seed pods.
If it had a deeper, darker color that would be even better.
Pretty trees as I had two of them. Canker got one of them after a few years. The other is almost dead but it made it 10 years and 15 feet tall. I have Appalachian Red and a white one that are older and healthy so far.
I checked my local nursery on Friday and they had pink pom poms in stock but they only had 20 gallon pots (trees about 8 feet tall) and they were $250 each. big pots but…yikes that’s expensive
You could take cuttings and graft them on any wild trees you have. Then you could grow out seedlings to graft in the coming years that you could plant out wherever you want.
Redbuds 50 years ago bloomed the last week of March. Dogwoods bloomed from April 10th to early May. Our seasons have shifted 2 weeks earlier. This includes pear bloom which is now mid-February vs previously end of February to early March, American Willow which is now January 20th to February 10th vs previously February 10th to 15th. I have these numbers in my head because as a beekeeper I keep track of what is blooming and when. As a a specific example, in 1977 I watched my bees collecting willow pollen on February 10th. I remember this because it was the year I subscribed to Gleanings in Bee Culture, graduated from high school, cut out and assembled my first frames for bee hives, and raised my first round of queens later that summer. Connecting those dots a bit, Gleanings January issue had an article by Charles Koover discussing cutting frames 31 mm wide. It inspired me to borrow my uncle’s tablesaw and cut out the frame parts. I made a slight mess of it due to problems with the alignment of my uncle’s saw and because I had not yet figured out all the tweaks needed to make narrow frames strong enough. I didn’t have much money, so making my own bee equipment was a necessity.
I found “the tree center” had some really bad ratings on the garden watchdog website (Dave’s garden) and they were really pushing their warranty and subscription service, so even though some people had bad experiences with them, I went with a tree from plant me green. Plant me green had a much better rating on the garden watchdog site, so I thought it worth a try. got a pink pom poms redbud and a DD Blanchard magnolia.
PlantAnt shows these listings. These suppliers are wholesale only, but it’s at least worth trying to get in touch with one if they’re local. Heritage in Oregon may ship for a reasonable price since the plants are smaller.
Also of note… The only recent update is the place in NC. All the other listings are out of date. Maybe they have them, maybe they don’t.
Plant ant is great. They have been a resource for my garden centers for years. It’s hit or miss on pricing, though. I’m guessing about 10% of growers use it. Some have excellent pricing and some don’t, but specialty items can get a little crazy. It’s a great place for a first look, though!
Well the tree I received from plant me green was the wrong cultivar. the flowers are very clearly standard redbud flowers, not pink pom pom (double petal). I sent them an email, and after waiting over a week (9 days) I didn’t receive a response. I called them today and got to speak to someone, and they will send me a replacement. fingers and toes crossed the next one is correct.
well the replacement they sent is also incorrect. it has darker flowers than the other one they sent me, but still no pom poms. I hate to be that guy, but next time I need to “speak to the manager”.
These things have to be in bloom as they are shipping them and they need someone who know what the flowers look like actually visually confirm at the nursery to send the right cultivar.
these are the flowers of the replacement I got, with the lighter colored one behind it.
so we are all on the same page, this is what they should look like. instead of the standard 5 petal flowers they are supposed to be double petaled and look like balls.
I already paid plant me green the money for one. I should get what I paid for. The picture of what it is supposed to look like was taken directly from their website. maybe I’m expecting too much?
I reached out to Rose Creek Nursery via email over the weekend since they popped up on Plant Ant as a potential wholesaler. I’ll try reaching out via phone later in the week if I don’t hear back.
If you have ideas about who to call, I’m all ears. I work a full time job weekdays, so I don’t really have the time to call a bunch of random nurseries all day looking for a specific cultivar. I need a place to start at the very least.
“True to name” was becoming a problem back when I retired, very irritating. Try Broken Arrow Nursery in Hamden Conn. Very professional, high quality. Ask a manager for when it’s available.
believe it or not, I subscribed to notifications of new stock of Cercis canadensis ‘Pink Pom Poms’ PP 27630 on the broken arrow website back on 10/11/2024
I have several subscriptions for notifications for items broken arrow lists on their website that appear to never come back in stock.
I was in email communications with a staff member there in 2024, Adam Wheeler, about getting my hands on Flava Corneilian cherry. he said they would propagate it and it would be available the following year. I checked back in in spring of 2025, and then again in spring 2026, but he stopped replying. when I called they claimed ignorance that they would be propagating it for me at all.
Wow, when a horticulture professor? owned it and was on-site it was one of the best. I got rare things but that was over 20 years ago, I guess time has changed that nursery, “not for the better”. Sad…
