Review Notes: Ultimate Height: 4m
Ultimate Spread: 4m
Time to ultimate height: 5-10 year(s)
Preferred common name: red-barked dogwood
Cornus can be deciduous shrubs or trees, or creeping, woody-based perennials, some with brightly coloured young stems. Tiny flowers are borne in dense clusters, sometimes with showy bracts. Many have fine autumn colour.
Pruning
Those shrubs, such as dogwood (Cornus) and the white-stemmed brambles such as Rubus cockburnianus, grown for the brilliant young stem colours are pruned very hard in late winter or early spring.
All growth should be cut back hard to a stubby low framework or, in the case of Rubus, to ground level. Shrubs with dramatic summer foliage, Cotinus, Sambucus and some Eucalyptus for example, are also pruned in this way to induce vigorous shoots with big, bold leaves.
Fertiliser and mulch should be spread around these plants in late winter or early spring to encourage strong regrowth
Cornus alba will grow in any soil, moist or dry, but for the best winter stem colour a moist site in full sun is recommended.
Hard annual pruning produces the best display of colourful winter stems, but at the expense of flowering growth. However, allow plants to grow unpruned for the first year after planting. Prune in early spring, before bud break, by cutting back all the stems to within 5cm (2in) of the ground, or within two buds of the previous year's growth
Pests Can get aphids, mussel scale, horse chestnut scale and glasshouse red spider mite .
Diseases Generally disease free.
Soil Acid or Neutral. Moist but well-drained or well-drained. Clay, Loam or Sand.
Aspect All aspects. Exposed or Sheltered.
Propagation Propagate by hardwood cuttings.
Flowers: White in Spring and Summer.
Foliage: Dark green.
Fruits: White in Autumn.
Evergreen/Deciduous: Deciduous.
RHS AGM
The RHS Woody Plant Committee awarded Cornus alba 'Sibirica' an Award of Garden Merit and described it as a: 'medium-sized suckering deciduous shrub forming a thicket of slender red stems, becoming bright crimson in winter. Leaves ovate, flowers small, cream, in flat heads; berries bluish-white.'
Suggested Plant Uses: Low Maintenance.
Supplied Height Approx 12" €1.95 + P&P
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Plant Type:- Shrub
Colour:- White in Spring and Summer
Flowering Period:- May to Jun
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