Garden Centre

Friday, November 23, 2007

Winter wonders

One good thing about the worst possible weather, as we've had recently, is that it gives my cornus a chance to shine. The bright red stems look just as good against a dully grey sky as they do when beaded with rain or rimmed with frost, or even half buried in snow. But to get this spectacular winter stem effect with dogwoods, you have to cut them back hard each spring, usually in around mid-March but a bit earlier or later is fine, just don't leave it too long, so the plant starts its new spring growth.

The reason for this hard pruning is to encourage as many upright cane-like stems as possible. The new stems have the brightly coloured bark, but the older stems are nowhere near as spectacular which is why we need to be so ruthless. Believe it or not, new stems will grow three to six feet in a year, sprouting from below the pruning cut, then growing quickly and becoming covered in not very exciting oval leaves. I have the red-stemmed variegated leaved version, which is more exciting than some others, but while it can be rather mundane in summer, it comes into its own now.

Labels: cornus, dogwood, winter colour

The All Seasons Gardener at 6:43 AM

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