By Sharon G. Seals
It’s a great optical illusion, walking the woods in an Arkansas spring and thinking there is snow on the boughs of trees. That is the gift of the dogwood.
The common flowering dogwood grows readily in the filtered sunlight of our woods. It’s valued for its flowers (colored leaf bracts, actually). Usually white, they can be pink to red depending on selection. The tree blooms late March to early April. Cherokee Princess is known for early and ample white blooms and red fall leaf color. Rubra is a good cultivar for pink flowers, and both have red berries beloved by birds.
The Kousa, or Japanese, dogwood blooms a few weeks after the common dogwood and tolerates a bit more sun. It needs some pruning while it is young to become more tree than bush.
When it blooms, the bracts appear above the leaves. The cultivar Scarlet Fire has deep pink, almost fuchsia colored bracts. The fall berries hang below branches, and its leaves are red or yellow in fall.
The Stella dogwood is a disease resistant hybrid of c. Kousa and c. florida. A Stella dogwood blooms in early May. Cultivars with trademarked names Celestial, Aurora, and Constellation have very desirable pink bracts. These and Stellar Pink have leaves that tend toward purple in the fall.
All three of these offer winning combinations: beautiful flowers, berries beloved by birds, some fragrance, spectacular fall leaf color, and architecturally interesting bare limbs with appealing bark. So many presents from one tree!
Sharon G. Seals, a Garland County Master Gardener, volunteers with GC Master Gardeners of the UofA Div. of Agriculture, Cooperative Ext. Service. Master Gardeners pool skills and resources to improve home horticulture, stimulate interest in plants and gardening, and encourage beautification. For more info, call 501-623-6841 or email abates@uaex.edu.
