I am interested in seeing pics of and hearing your recommendations for the best compact, red twigged dogwood shrubs. I am planning a short border (13' x 3-4') on the front side of my house. Problem is there is a gate to the backyard that opens very close to where the plants would be, so they can't get too large. This is south facing, but there is a large blue spruce shading the border some of the day.
I have colonies of Cornus stolinifera on this 5 acre property. The bushes can easily reach 4-5 ft tall. Pruning old grey wood encourages new (red) growth........ I notice a moose browsed the tips sometime before Christmas. I also have a silverleaf (variegated fellow) that decided to grow last season - now 5 ft tall, and about 4 ft spread. The gold leaf next to it will have to move...... as will my Buddleia. The area shown in the pic is not suitable unless you want a make work project cf pruning/topiary(?). A traffic area - give it some more thought. I haven't seen a dwarf red-twigged specimen. That blue spruce will grow some too; monitor growth for possible relocation - the bigger they get, the more difficult it is to move; similarly, buying big shrubs/trees is risky from several points of view. I do like to grow with my stuff, and yes, it is easy to make a mistake in being unrealistic about the ultimate size of a plant/tree - I still do it!
Bill in SE Newfoundland zone 5a
Hi PrairieGirlZ5, Check out this link. They are a wholesale grower, and if you look hard enough, you will be able to find their cultivars in nurseries. http://www.springmeadownursery.com/plants_cornus.htm
In one of their previous catalogues they had a pic of all the cultivars side-by-side but I can't seem to find that image.
PrairieGirl, the compact red ones you probably are most likely to find at nurseries here in our state are Isanti and Kelsey. Look them up and see if they would suit your needs.
Guy S.
Thanks Guy, that's the info. I was after. Kelsey is a puny, barely red-twigged cultivar, at least the one on campus is (JJC), so I had already ruled that one out. I will check into Isanti, Ivory Halo is the one that caught my eye, looking at pictures is so misleading sometimes. I have been told that the variegated ones are slower growing too. That would be a first for me, as I'm pretty new at this. Maybe just one and call it a day?
Thanks growin for the help, I'm going to the Mid-Am trade show Thursday, hoping for some good insider tips!
Bill, thanks for the advice, are you saying that maybe even compact cultivar too big for that narrow side border? I will be widening the beds this spring, the side bed all the way to the path. I was planning to move all of the plants you see in that post, except maybe centering the switchgrass in that side bed w/ 1-2 dogwoods faced by small evergreen shrubs, maybe taunton yews. The spruce is about 30-40 feet tall, so it's not going anywhere! I'm willing to do the necessary pruning to get the red-twigs, just a little intimidated by the specifics. Do I try a symmetrical (more formal-looking) planting, or a smaller version of the mixed border, with one of each: dogwood, evg, switchgrass, maybe a few perennials and bulbs, a little groundcover like bergenia?
