There’s no denying the charm of a redbud in full bloom. Their early-spring flowers light up the landscape with shades of pink, purple, or even white, long before most trees have so much as thought about leafing out.
Add in their signature heart-shaped leaves and graceful branching, and it’s easy to see why Cercis species are beloved across gardens and natural areas alike.
If you’ve fallen for a redbud and want more, you might be tempted to try your hand at propagation—and you wouldn’t be alone. But fair warning: these trees can be tricky to multiply.
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We’d recommend that beginners stick with buying an improved cultivar at a local or online nursery. These can give you a variety of different spring and fall leaf colors along with beautiful blooms.
Still, if you’re curious and up for the challenge, there are a few propagation methods that can work with a little know-how, patience, and the right materials.
In addition to the following methods, it’s possible to propagate these via grafting, but it’s so unreliable and challenging that we don’t recommend it unless you’re already an expert grafter.
For most gardeners, growing from seed, rooting cuttings, or transplanting nursery stock offers the best chance at success.
We’ll walk through each of these approaches, what to expect, and how to give your redbud propagation project the best possible start.
Let’s dig into the process.
Because redbuds don’t always root easily from cuttings and often show poor seed germination without the right treatment, patience is key no matter which route you choose.
From Seed
Propagating seed takes some work. The seeds, which appear in the fall, need to be dried, scarified, and stratified before planting.
Then, you need to wait about two months for germination to take place.
Not feeling daunted? Head out in the fall and look for the seed pods on a mature tree. They’re long and pea-pod shaped, and they should be brown at this point.
Collect and lay the pods on a screen or hang them from a piece of string to allow them to air dry.
After a few days, remove the seeds from inside the pods. Even if you only want to grow one tree, prepare several seeds just to be safe.
One option at this point is to soak the seeds in sulfuric acid for 30 minutes. You can often find this at stores sold in the drain cleaner aisle.
Keep in mind this is strong, poisonous stuff, so heed all safety precautions on the label. That means wearing protective gear like gloves, eye protection, and a mask.
Or you can submerge the seeds in nearly boiling water held at 180°F for about a minute.
Drain and rinse the seeds carefully if you used acid, or drain and allow the seeds to cool if you prepared them in water.
Fill a jar or resealable bag with equal parts sand and sphagnum moss and moisten it so it feels like a well-wrung-out sponge. Bury the seeds in the sand, seal, and place the bag or jar in the fridge.
Occasionally check to make sure the sand mix is moist and there’s no mold forming. If you see mold, remove the seeds and place them in fresh sand in a clean bag or jar.
After about five weeks – though it might take up to 10 weeks – you should start to see growth. The second you see growth emerging from a seed, plant it.
To do this, fill a six-inch compostable pot with potting mix. Sow one germinated seed a quarter-inch deep in each container.
Place the containers outside in a spot that receives partial sun, about six hours per day. Bring them back inside any time the temperature drops below 35°F.
Once a seedling is about six inches tall, you can plant it in the ground. It’s best to transplant either in the fall or spring, and you should avoid planting in the winter or summer.
From Cuttings
It is possible to propagate redbuds from cuttings, but they don’t take reliably, which is why growers tend to rely on propagating seed when possible instead.
If you carefully control the environment, you might have a higher rate of success.
In early summer, take a few six-inch cuttings of soft, pliable wood from the tips of healthy branches. Place the cuttings in water until you get them inside and are ready to plant, which you should do right away.
When you’re ready, cut the end of each at a 45-degree angle, remove any leaves from the bottom half, and dip the cut ends in a rooting hormone.
a lot of propagating, you should definitely invest in some rooting hormone powder. It helps roots to grow more quickly and increases the number of roots that form initially.
Bonide makes an excellent product that Arbico Organics carries in 1.25-ounce containers.
Bonide Bontone II Rooting Powder
The rooting hormone step is optional for propagating some types of plants, but it’s mandatory in this case to improve your chances of success.
Plant each cutting an inch or two deep in a six-inch pot filled with potting soil.
Place the pots on a heated mat to keep the soil at 72 to 78°F. If the soil temperature drops into the 60s, rooting success rates drop off dramatically.
You also need to keep the cuttings humid for successful propagation.
The easiest way to do this is to cover them with a cloche or other type of cover and mist them daily. You can also use a humidifier.
Keep the cuttings in a place where they’ll receive six hours per day of supplemental lighting.
Electric grow lights are preferred to natural sunlight here because you can regulate the exposure, and LED bulbs won’t heat the soil or interior of the cover excessively like direct sunlight might.
Transplanting Saplings or Bare Roots
Planting a sapling or bare root tree is best done in the early spring or late fall when the ground is workable.
Pick a spot with the right sun exposure and spacing from other plants or structures – we cover this in more detail in our redbud growing and care guide.
Once you’ve nailed down the right spot, dig away. Make sure you aren’t digging into any utility cables.
Dig a hole that is twice as wide and twice as deep as the container that the sapling is currently growing in, or three times as wide and twice as deep as the root ball.
Fill in the bottom half of the hole with a mixture of well-rotted compost and native soil.
Remove the sapling from the container and gently loosen up the roots. Place it in the hole, and make sure it’s sitting at the same level that it was inside the container.
For bare root plants, the entire root ball should be buried sitting just below the soil line. The trunk can not tolerate being buried at all.
You don’t want the plant to be positioned any deeper or more shallow than it was before if it came in a pot filled with soil from the nursery. If necessary, adjust the quantity of soil in the base of the hole.
Fill in around the sides with a mixture of compost and native soil. Firm the soil around the roots and water well. If the soil settles, add a bit more.
This Rosebud is For You
Propagating redbud trees isn’t the easiest task in the gardening world, but it’s certainly one of the more rewarding.
Watching a tree that you’ve started from seed, nurtured from a cutting, or carefully transplanted flourish over the years is a long game—but one well worth playing.
Whether you’re aiming to enhance your landscape with a splash of spring color or support native pollinators with a hardy deciduous beauty, redbuds are an excellent choice.
With a bit of patience and care, you’ll be well on your way to cultivating a vibrant, heart-leaved canopy of your own.
What about you? Let us know your questions, concerns, or success grafting these beautiful trees in the comments section. And don’t be afraid of uploading photos (using the paperclip icon in the comment boxes).
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