Best white dogwoods for Western North Carolina

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ThistleGairden Zirconia, NC Mar 04, 2010

Could I have your opinions on the most disease resistant white dogwood trees for my area?We live in the mountains and lost a huge amount of native trees during the ice storms of this winter. We will be planting new trees but wanted to include many dogwoods as they are so beautiful as an understory tree. Thanks so much.

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spartacusaby Hendersonville, NC(Zone 7a) Mar 05, 2010

I've heard good reports on both 'Appalachian Spring' and 'Cherokee Princess' on antracnose resistance, which can be problematic here. 'Cherokee Princess' is also said to be resistant to powdery mildew. Sorry to hear about your losses from the ice storms; I suspect we'll have our share here, too, darn it, though we untypically got more snow than ice this year.
Ruth

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ViburnumValley Scott County, KY(Zone 5b) Mar 05, 2010

Take a look at some of the selections being made by the University of Tennessee, based on research around disease resistance. Most of the named clones have 'Appalachian' in their titles; 'Appalachian Spring' is one of the early releases from this program.

Here's a link to start you off:

http://agriculture.tennessee.edu/news/releases/0604-dogwood.htm

The best answer to restoring dogwoods into native/natural landscapes is to plant a variety of seedling grown trees from local provenance. While disease resistance will have some variability, there will also be diverse genetics that have stood the test of what your local environment has presented. These selections out of the UT program are good plants, just not necessarily of the plant community you are looking to restore.

Solely planting introduced clonal selections of dogwoods (even from a "native" species) will make you happy in the short term (to some extent), but promoting and propagating the plants native to the western NC mountains is a good long term strategy for the healthy future of that system.

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ThistleGairden Zirconia, NC May 10, 2010

Thank you all so much for the great advise. I am tardy replying because our daughter just had her first baby and we have been very busy. I do want to introduce the native dogwoods back onto the property but I also purchased 3 "Appalachian Spring" trees that seem to be doing nicely.

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spartacusaby Hendersonville, NC(Zone 7a) May 13, 2010

Good luck with the irises, and congrats on the new baby!
Ruth

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