Wait Until You See.....

.....the new redbuds coming to market in the very near future. Some friends and I took a trip to Winchester on Friday and stopped to see Harold and Alex Neubauer (all I can say about their nursery is WOW!) before heading on over to see our good friend and horticulture guru, Don Shadow. Don took the time out of his busy day to treat us to lunch and then showed us to the far corners of the nursery where the best-of-the-best called to us from across the acres. One of the most beautiful was the plant pictured here--Cercis canadensis 'Rising Sun'--with golden yellow foliage providing the perfect foil for the coppery-orange new growth and all of it (old foliage and new) highlighted with brilliant, hot pink petioles! This is my kind of plant! Flowering in spring, its blossoms will be the typical redbud color.

Just as a tease, we also saw burgundy-leafed weeping redbuds, a mottled green-and-white variegated cultivar, a weeping variegated variety and perhaps my favorite of all (except for 'Rising Sun', of course) a hybrid between 'Forest Pansy' and 'Oklahoma' that had leaves that looked like deep, dark burgundy patent leather! Shiny and almost black! Yowza! Just wait til you see what's coming!

Thanks to Don for a fun day and to Harold and Alex for inviting us into the nursery on such short notice that morning. We appreciated it very much!