What's Hot Now: Flowering Dogwoods

Dogwoods are interesting.  The genus, Cornus, is divided into two main groups in my mind: those with colorful stems in winter and those with beautiful flowers in spring.  In this blog post, I’m going to focus on two that are grown primarily for their spring flowers and are small trees. 

 

The two most common flowering dogwood trees are the Eastern Dogwood and the Pacific Dogwood.  Both are beautiful, but one is more prone to disease and insects in our area than the other.  Can you guess which?  It’s the one that isn’t a native to PWN.  Yes, the Cornus florida (Eastern Dogwood) is stunning, but it suffers from more insect damage and disease than its Pacific cousin, though Cornus nutallii can also suffer from anthracnose.  A fungal disease that is caused by wet, cool springs and exasperated by plant stress, anthracnose has been causing problems within the dogwood community on the east and west coasts.  (Cool, wet springs in Oregon?  That would never happen.)

Drupes.  Photo from carolinanature.com

But enough of the depressing talk; let’s coo over its beauty.  These small trees generally don’t grow more than 20’ tall, but have lovely white or pink blooms in spring.  C. florida blooms slightly earlier than C. nutallii.  In late summer, both produce clumps of drupes (or berries) that turn red and are an added attraction that the birds enjoy, too.  In autumn, the leaves turn a lovely red before falling.

For both C. florida and C. nutallii, the bark is susceptible to sunburn, so part sun conditions are best, particularly with western shade.  (For my friends down south, yes, there are plants that get sunburn.  I thought it was a joke when I first moved up here, but it’s true. Unfortunately, that’s why these beauties would never be found south of the Red River.)  When planting dogwoods, be especially gentle, since C. florida tends to not like the transplant process.

All of the photos added to this post are of C. florida.  It's still a bit early for C. nutallii.

There is another flowering dogwood that I adore, but it is special enough to warrant its own blog post.  Check back soon to learn about the pagoda dogwood or Cornus alternifolia.  I’ve also heard it called the Wedding Cake tree.  Once you learn about this tree, you will covet it, too.