Redbud (don't) weep for me.....

(with apologies to Ann Ronell)



These are my neighbors Joe and Terry .  Say Hi guys.

They say Hi.

A few years ago, their screened  in porch  was blocked by a few things.  On my side a bunch of scrubby catalpa and ailanthus trees and on their side by a series of white pines. 

Well black walnuts being what they are, they made pretty quick work of the pines which leaves me with just one white pine (the one farthest from the walnuts). The net effect is that their porch looks directly over my patio and into the family room.

They haven't called asking me to change the channel, but they may just get a long range remote control and do it themselves.

So in an effort to make them fade into the trees, I put up this guy.

At the time all I knew was this is a redbud, I read that they were black walnut tolerant (a must) and that it would grow fast and get about twenty feet high (perfect).

So I planted it and waited.

Only one problem.

Instead of growing up, it wept.  So it's only about two or three feet higher than when I planted it, but a lot wider.

Now there are two possibilities, first is that it actually is a weeping redbud,  which is possible, although I don't remember reading anything about it being one.  The other thing is that a few years when the aforementioned Joe and Terry hired a tree pruner to eviscerate the walnut (another posting).  He dropped logs on top of the redbud like they were bird droppings

That is if bird droppings weighed 60 lbs a piece.

The sixty pound thing may be an teensy influencing factor in the weeping.

So my question is whether I train this bad boy to stand up straight, or at least straighter.

To achieve my ultimate goal, I need this guy to maybe get about five feet higher tops,  that would block out my neighbors screened in porch, where they sit at night and say bad things about me.

Any thoughts?