Dogwood Trees in The Landscape

Dogwood Trees and Varieties:

There are different kinds of these ornamental trees.


Flowering Dogwood Tree

Since about the 1970's, this native tree has been susceptible to the fungus Anthracnose. Spots and blotches can appear on the leaves and flowers and the tree can deteriorate.This is so unfortunate, as this is a native tree and has so many lovely attributes.

It has lovely flowers in the Spring. Typically they are either white or pink. The petals are single, the size is showy and the petal shapes are very pretty. It is low-branched and full. Rather than having one, tall main trunk, there are many branches giving it a beautiful form. In the Fall, it gets colorful red berries and its leaf color is a beautiful red. Even in the winter, the branching structure is attractive, thus making it a wonderful all season tree. It is one of our native trees and attracts many birds. You can often see them growing in or on the edges of woods. Although they might blend into the other trees in the landscape during the summer, there is no missing them in the Spring when they flower!

Kousa Dogwood

The Kousa Dogwood, or Japanese Kousa, is a white flowering, often multi-stemmed tree. It produces raspberry-like berries in the fall.....they are striking!They are quite large and add beautiful color to the tree.

I sometimes use a Kousa Dogwood at the corner of a house where I want to provide some strength. It also looks nice in front of a mass of evergreen trees. It has shown good resistance to Anthracnose. It blooms later than the native dogwood. It also gets quite a bit taller than the other Dogwoods.

Dogwood Tree Hybrids

Hybrids, or crosses between the Flowering Dogwood tree and the Kousa Dogwood, have been developed by Dr. Orton at Rutgers University. The purpose of this was to create trees that resembled the Flowering Dogwood tree, but with disease resistance. This has been quite successful.

Some of these cultivars are 'Aurora', 'Celestial', 'Constellation', Ruth Ellen', 'Stardust', and 'Stellar Pink'. What is interesting, is that they often bloom in between the times of the Flowering Dogwood tree and the Kousa Dogwood. Each of the cultivars is a little different. It might be the color of the flower, whether pink or white. Some bloom a bit earlier or later and sizes may vary slightly. Berry production may be different also. I happen to like 'Stellar Pink' for its pink flowers and particularly good disease resistance.

The Flowering Dogwood tree does not get too large, so can be used many places in the landscape. Place one near the front door and enjoy it throughout all the seasons. Likewise, they are nice near a patio. They are pretty used as an allee along the driveway, as an alternative to shade trees. Although it is not considered a shade tree, it does cast shade.

While the Kousa Dogwood's flowers are usually white, the other Dogwoods can be white or shades of pink.

Any of these landscape trees are a wonderful attribute to a garden due to their many features. An added bonus, as mentioned above, is the birds that are attracted to the berries of all of the varieties.

I often use the Kousa as it is multi-stemmed. This means that instead of having one main trunk, it has many coming from the ground. The Kousa, therefore, provides extra mass and is good for screening and privacy. It does, however, lose its leaves in the winter as it is deciduous. Although it does provide separation, even in the winter, it will not provide the same screening that evergreen trees will. However, that may or may not be important in the winter.

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