Source: PlantingTree.com (NC)
Size shipped: 5-6', potted
Planted: In ground, March 2019
First flowering: Spring 2020
Buy one at PlantingTree.com (affiliate link; supports this website)
(This plant stayed behind when I moved in 2021; therefore, the following text will receive no further updates.)
Shipped in March 2019; was never supposed to be shipped that early for danger of frost, but planted anyway. Leafed out fine, but no flowers until the next year. Staked throughout 2019. Grew 2-3' in 2019 with just slow-release organic fertilizer (Espoma Plant-tone).
Note that the wife requests this one be kept somewhat dwarfed, so I probably can't quite let it grow to overhang the driveway and walkway as I'd originally hoped, but we'll see about that when we get there.
2020 saw this redbud's robust growth continue despite no additional fertilizer (beyond anything that 2019's decomposing bark mulch layer may have contributed), to the tune of 2-3' even before Flag Day. And this was without significant pruning in the offseason either. Between the plant being healthy as a horse, and the way PlantingTree.com sent me another redbud free of charge in case this one didn't survive the early planting, I'd really like to support them by buying something else there... but their location in the Carolinas and their relative lack of selection makes it difficult to find a good opportunity so to do.
In the 2020 growing season, the terminal buds appeared to have either dropped off or shrunk to the point of inconspicuousness sometime in late June or early July; I'm going to need to track this more closely in future years. That ended up being it for the year; in 2019 it did have at least a second, but that may have been because I tried to clip it back during the summer (a spectacular failure, I should add, because of how the tree responded by growing 2-3 stupidly long shoots instead of branching out all over the place -- next time I'll know to make any such heading cuts during the dormant period, as per the principles expounded here).
Just before Labor Day 2020, I made a few thinning cuts (including removing the lowest branch that was never going to remain long-term, before it could get too big to remove easily) and a grand total of one heading cut to force better branching to replace one of the large branches I removed (too tight a crotch angle), trusting the principles expounded here that it won't react with new growth (due to how late it is in the growing season) and the newly released buds on the headed branch will therefore have the maximum time possible without suppression (see previous paragraph's link) just as if I'd done the cut early in the dormant period, which should lead to most of them breaking successfully in the spring and giving me many more branches to choose from in the problem area. I stayed well under one third of the buds anyway, so we wouldn't expect rampant watersprouting in any case.
And did the redbud react? No -- it behaved itself perfectly well and stayed put, not starting any new growth anywhere, waiting for next year like I had hoped. I will need to remember this for future years and for other deciduous trees.
October 2020 saw something I really hadn't seen from this redbud in 2019: notable fall foliage. The yellow color was bright enough to be striking, especially against the house's blue siding, even if brown spots seemed to begin overtaking the leaves too early for truly maximum effect.