Cornus alba (Tatarian Dogwood)

Noted for its colorful stems and twigs in winter, Cornus alba (Tatarian Dogwood) is a medium-sized ornamental shrub with great appeal. Rapidly growing and adaptable to wet or dry soils, it features spectacular decorative features: stunning fall color, attractive berries, showy red stems, and sometimes lovely variegated summer foliage. A spectacular addition in the garden for most seasons, Tatarian Dogwood certainly adds a WOW! to a winter landscape.

• Cornus alba is a multi-stemmed, suckering, deciduous shrub with an upright oval to rounded habit when young, becoming either arching and spreading or open and straggly with age. It grows at a fast rate, typically up to 8-10 ft. high and across (240-300 cm), but there are many dwarfs or larger varieties available.
• The stems are often numerous and beautifully radiate from the base of the shrub. They develop their intense and showy coloration, usually red, in fall and winter.
• Flat-topped clusters of tiny creamy-white flowers, 2 in. wide (5 cm), appear in late spring and sometimes sporadically flower in late summer or early fall. While not especially showy, they attract happy butterflies and pollinators and give way in midsummer to clusters of white berries, sometimes tinged with blue, that birds greedily devour.
• The summer foliage consists of elliptic to ovate leaves, either solid green or variegated, with veins curving and parallel to the entire margins. The fall color is insignificant among cultivars with variegated leaves. Other cultivars have yellow or red-purple fall colors.
• Tatarian dogwood is similar in appearance to redtwig dogwood (C. sericea/stolonifera), but generally does not spread as aggressively. Promptly remove root suckers if the colonial spread is undesired.
• Performs best in full sun to part shade, in organically rich, medium moisture, well-drained soils. It is not fussy about soils, provided they are kept evenly moist and well-drained. Tolerates many conditions, including wet, dry, and poor soils.
• Looks spectacular when massed to emphasize and accentuate the cold season red stem color. Great choice for shrub borders, as an informal hedge or screen, for foundation plantings, banks and slopes (erosion control), or planted in naturalistic plantings where it can freely spread and form thickets.
• When stressed, the shrub is susceptible to disease issues, including dogwood anthracnose, powdery mildew, leaf spot, canker, root rot, and leaf and twig blight. It is more vulnerable to diseases in hot summer climates (south of USDA Zone 7). Deer and rabbit resistant. Learn more about dogwood pests and diseases.
• While pruning is not required, it should be noted that the best winter stem color appears on new growth. For the best display, cut the stems flush to the ground every 2-3 years in early spring, just as the leaf buds start to swell. This radical pruning, however, means that you will have a bare spot in the garden for a few weeks and miss the creamy-white flowers or attractive berries since they only form on second-year growth. Alternatively, if severe pruning seems onerous, one-quarter or one-third of the oldest stems could be pruned in the early spring each year to stimulate the growth of new stems.
• Propagate by hardwood cuttings.
• Cornus alba is a species of dogwood native to eastern and central Asia. It is widely grown as an ornamental plant, whose available cultivars have been selected for their winter glowing colors.