Name:    Cercis canadensis ‘JN2’ aka The Rising Sun Redbud

Type of Plant:   A small tree with heart-shaped leaves. Growing slowly to 8 to 12 feet tall and wide.

Why I Love/Hate this plant: This small tree is special because the new foliage is a mix of lime green, coral, gold and yellow. Some leaves have darker green splotching as well. Since it’s the new foliage that is the most colorful, it’s great that fresh leaves are produced all through the growing season.

This tree has the usual pink flowers in the early spring, and these are on the branches when the newest, peach colored leaves begin to come out.

The Rising Sun was discovered in 2006 in the Jackson Nursery in Belvidere, Tennessee.

A Word to the Wise:  You can grow this in full sun to part shade, but in my experience, the flowering and leaf-color is most abundant when the plant is in full to part-sun.  Water this tree once a week in times of drought.

Japanese beetles do like to chomp on the leaves, but I’ve found it to be “an acceptable level of damage” in my garden.

My The Rising Sun redbud is in morning shade and only gets sun in the late afternoon. If I was planting it again, I’d place it in a sunnier spot. Still, it’s a lovely small tree in my shade garden!

This is what’s so charming about this small redbud tree. The new leaves are produced all summer, and they are colorful. And note the splash of dark green on the lime-colored leaf in the center. 

As the pink flowers bloom on older stems of The Rising Sun redbud, the leaves are also starting to form, and they are a lovely honey to coral color.