What's in a Name?

    Being new to this industry, one of the nice things I was able to do last year was go on nursery tours. In addition to seeing some beautiful plants I have never seen before, I was also fortunate enough to learn how some of the different plant selections came to be. One of the plants that stood out to me was the Lavender Twist Weeping Redbud tree (Cercis Canadensis ‘Covey’) at Brotzman’s Nursery, Inc. I asked Tim Brotzman if he wouldn’t mind sharing the story for our newsletter and he graciously accepted.

Dear Jason:
    One aspect of the story which is consistently overlooked is the role of Charlie and Nancy Hanks, former owners of Westfield Nursery in Westfield, NY.
    I think it was spring 1991 when Nancy came in to pick up their order, and asked if I would be willing to propagate a weeping redbud. Apparently someone in their town had noticed the tree in the yard of Miss Cornelia (Connie) Covey, and there was interest in giving out a young plant as a gift.
    I doubted the existence of such a plant when first told of it, so Nancy sent me some scions and photographs. I was able to successfully graft one out of 50 that I attempted. Later that spring I met Miss Covey and by the end of the year, had arranged to buy the rights to the tree's propagation and eventual transplanting to Madison, OH.
    Connie was (and to my knowledge is still living) a very endearing lady, and I wanted to name the plant after her. However, when I first saw the twisted, 30+ year old plant in full flower, I remarked about it being full of lavender twists. That description stayed with me until I adopted it as the name I would register for marketing purposes.
    During the first two years I prepared the plant for transplanting by digging a trench around it. About three years after first viewing it, Charlie Hanks helped me move it to our nursery in Madison. Connie relocated to another home with less to maintain, and the tree, which grew unceremoniously in her yard for 30 years, may prove to be one of the decade's most novel introductions.
    As to the story Connie told me: in the early 1960's her brother and mother were returning from a trip to Florida. While unpacking the car, Connie's mother gave her a small plant in a pot, telling her to plant it in the yard. This turned out to be the weeping redbud. Connie has no idea where, why or how they received it, but she did speculate her brother might have noticed it while their mother was taking a rest break. Remember, being the early 60's, there may not have been an interstate freeway system, and their route could have been reasonably rural. The tree grew in their yard, apparently as part of a shrub planting. One day when I was working on the tree, a neighbor recounted on how he was helping Connie to clean up her yard, and was sawing down an overgrown lilac which apparently had grown into/over the weeping redbud. He told me he was sawing away on the lilac when he came to a strange looking, twisted plant. Not knowing what it was, he left it be and worked around it. When I first saw the plant it was fully in the open and visible from the highway less than 30 feet away. Perhaps the lilacs/other shrubs had obscured it until this time?
Tim

Thank you Tim for sharing this story with us. The next time you see a Lavender Twist, think of how this very interesting plant came to be.

Written by Jason Moore                

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Plant of the Month

Cercis canadensis 'Covey'

						Lavender Twist Redbud – The mother plant has reached a height of only 5' after about 40 years, illustrating how slowly the plant will increase in size if it is not artificially supported/trained. Plants should be chosen at the height desired, and expect no more than 1-2' increase. Width will be some function of height, and will spread approximately 1.5 x the height.      In cultivation, plants are usually staked to a given height and allowed to tumble off, never to return to growing upward.
	Flower colors are a lavender-purple-mauve. Leaves are dark green, slightly larger than normal and are held in such a way to make the plant appear to have been “shingled.”     Spring Flowering occurs same time as mid-season tulips. They and Euphorbia polychroma- make great companions to Lavender Twist.
			(Click Picture to Enlarge)