![]() “The prices are awesome because our goal is to sell 10 a day – with some, you can do custom orders. “We have Shelley Meldrum, our Broom Tree Sweets coordinator, who is a very talented baker, and we are utilizing her skills to sell custom birthday cakes and wedding cakes. ![]() “We just launched Broom Tree Sweets – it’s awesome because it’s another component of our social enterprise cafe,” explained Tamara Noordhof, program director. Eliminate volunteers before they establish.Lacombe’s Broom Tree Foundation is offering a new ‘sweet’ way to fundraise and have an even bigger impact on the community. Princess trees are invasive everywhere in our area and are not recommended as landscape plants. It is now considered an ecological hazard, especially to Linville Gorge and along I-40 near the Tennessee state border. ![]() Paulownia was introduced in the mid-1800s as an ornamental landscape plant. The Paulownia or Princess tree also blooms in spring with panicles of purple flowers. ![]() ‘Silver Cloud’ (variegated green and white foliage) ‘Ruby Falls’ (purple foliage, weeping habit) ‘Forest Pansy’ (purple foliage, pink flowers) Check out some of these selections to see what strikes your fancy. For serious infestations, contact your local Extension office for treatment options.Įastern redbuds are lovely native trees that are valued in our landscapes. Insects that feed on redbuds include treehoppers, caterpillars, scales, and leafhoppers. Leaf anthracnose and other leaf spot diseases may affect the tree’s appearance but not its overall health. Verticillium wilt, another serious fungal disease, blocks the tree’s vascular system from taking up water and nutrients. Keep plants as healthy as possible by watering regularly during dry periods and pruning out diseased branches with disinfected tools. The most common culprit is the fungal disease, Botryosphaeria canker, which can encircle the branches, effectively cutting off the water supply to the leaves, leading to branch drop. These beautiful trees are usually free of serious disease and pests, but are relatively short-lived, typically declining from disease after twenty years. Some Native Americans and folk healers use the bark and roots to produce teas and tinctures to treat various ailments. Redbuds are in the pea family-their edible flowers taste like peas, making them a colorful and tasty addition to a spring salad-but only if the trees are untreated with pesticides. Birds and squirrels may feed on the seeds. Redbud nectar attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. They are fire-tolerant and will sprout back from the roots after a fire. In WNC, the trees are usually more numerous on south-facing slopes with more sunlight. The trees will tolerate full sun and both alkaline and acidic soils. In the wild, eastern redbud occurs as an understory tree, preferring moist, well-drained soil, but adaptable to a range of soil conditions, and hardy from USDA zones 4 to 9. The trees produce clusters of green seed pods that look similar to snow peas, but brown when mature. After blooming, the heart-shaped leaves emerge and mature to a dark green, turning yellow to yellowish orange by fall. The pink to reddish-purple flowers emerge in early spring on old branches and trunks, before the leaves. The eastern redbud is a small deciduous tree-15 to 30 feet tall and 15 to 25 feet wide-native to North America, ranging as far north as Canada, south as Florida, and west to Texas. By late April or May, you’ll see larger purple flowers on the invasive Princess tree ( Paulownia tomentosa). What are those lovely trees? In March and April in Western North Carolina, these are most likely the native eastern redbud ( Cercis canadensis). Are you seeing signs of spring? After the bold yellow forsythia blooms, purple-flowering trees will soon brighten our yards and hillsides.
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