

In either case, they make fantastic trees grouped under larger trees, grouped together, or planted as a specimen tree in a bed filled with other spring-bloomers. But don’t pass up the dogwood even if you have an expansive garden. Some cultivated varieties are even smaller. Perfect for smaller yards, flowering dogwoods typically grow to about 25-feet tall. Just like the famous holiday standby, the Poinsettia, it is the bract surrounding the flowers that is striking.Īs if the bloom in spring were not enough, flowering dogwood has many other worthwhile traits. Of course, the ‘white flowers’ are not flowers at all, but are bracts that frame the small, green inconspicuous flowers in the center. Clad in brilliant, ‘four-petaled’ white ‘flowers’, nothing says spring quite like a dogwood in bloom. In addition, all dogwoods have more than one season of interest, which make them a particularly valuable landscape family of plants, especially for many gardens which lack the room and need plants to carry their weight in landscape appeal.īy far, the most popular member, and one of our most prized native plant is the flowering dogwood, Cornus florida. And all of them have different attributes that make them stellar residents of the garden. Most dogwoods are relatively carefree and easy to grow. Even the smallest member of the family, the wildflower bunchberry, Cornus canadensis, possesses those leaves, but in miniature form. You can always tell a dogwood by its signature leaves long, pointed ovals, wavy with deep veins. There is even a dogwood that is a wildflower. The dogwood family contains a number of trees and shrubs that are native to our area. But dogwoods have another season of beauty, Fall.ĭogwoods have much to offer in Fall, from their leaves which bestow warm, burnished tones, to their fantastic berries, which depending on the species, could be nearly any color. You may be wondering ‘Why write an article about dogwoods now? Why not wait until spring, when they are in their blooming splendor?’ Dogwoods are typically known and beloved for their beautiful spring flowers.
