Gardening: Red Twig Dogwoods (Cornus stolonifera) and Why I Like Them

Why do I like Red Twig Dogwoods (Cornus sericea or Cornus stolonifera)? If you look in the picture below the reason should become red-ily apparent. The multibranched shrubs stand out with a bright red coloring that looks fantastic in the wintertime. When the trees are bereft of leaves and the stems are left, the red twigs won't disappoint for winter color.

These particular plants are in a nursery and unfortunately not in my garden but one day our little red twig dogwoods will grow into fine landscape specimens! Red twig dogwoods flower in the spring, exhibit a lush canopy of green in the summer, display berries in the summer and fall, change colors with other deciduous trees and shrubs, and show their characteristic bright red stem display in the winter. It's truly a plant with four season interest but most people, including myself, love it for the red stems. The stems will eventually fade from being the bright red and will change into a brown color. An occasional pruning of the older stems will force new stems to grow which will turn red for the fall. These shrubs sucker readily and grow fairly fast which makes them fun for propagating! They like moist locations but do well in a range of soils in zones 3-8.

So Why Do I Like Them?

Four Season Interest
Bright Red Stems
Spring Flowers
Easy to Propagate by cuttings!