Now while the better pruners at the garden (Iain, Tim and Keith) could certainly make them presentable, I can only remember one I was ever happy with after pruning. They provide virtually no ecological benefit when compared to our native Flowering Dogwoods.

Kousa Dogwood like this one can be pretty but’s thats all they are. Their stiff upright growth habit made pruning them into a natural looking form an annual source of frustration. As our primary pruning goal was aesthetics and size containment, I absolutely hated these trees. Two, we had several Kousa dogwood at Anderson Gardens so I have experience pruning these trees in a Japanese Garden. While I didn’t baby these plants, they received a bit more care and watering then I usually do for plants are proved to be a bit too delicate for my needs. One from heat and dry conditions and the other from not getting established before a hard winter. One, I have planted two Kousa dogwoods at separate times in my old yard and they both died. While the Kousa dogwood does have it’s proponents, I am not one of them for three reasons.

Many nurseries will suggest the related Chinese or Kousa dogwood ( Cornus kousa) as it is also called, instead of our native flowering dogwood due to its resistance to dogwood anthracnose. Photo by lcm1863 licensed under Attribution-NoDerivs License know how devastating this disease is to native Flowering dogwood trees. This resistance to anthracnose is huge as those in the Eastern U.S. This great tree was introduced by the University of Tenneesee from a disease-free tree found in the Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland. What makes this Flowering dogwood special is the fact that has strong resistance to the lethal disease of flowering dogwood trees, dogwood anthracnose (Discula sp.) Instead they should be looking for arguably the most beautiful of the native American flowering trees, the Flowering dogwood. The Appalachian Spring dogwood ( Cornus florida ‘Appalachian Spring’) is an outstanding flowering tree that blooms in the Spring on leafless branches.įans of Japanese gardens, such as the one I used to work at, are often looking for Cherry blooms in Spring.

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