I would love to grow a dogwood tree. I have now failed 3 times. What is the secret to growing these trees?
The dogwood is one of the most popular and beautiful trees in the country. Even though it doesn’t grow in every part of the country, it’s still one of the most recognizable native trees.
The only problem with it is that many of these trees are killed every year because they’re not planted properly. One of the best ways to learn how to plant a dogwood and get it to survive is to look at how it grows naturally.
The flowering dogwood is indigenous to woodlands, so it likes a little shade and it also prefers acidic and well-drained soils. Dogwoods are very shallow rooted, so when planting them, you should make sure you don’t plant them too deep. Since their native environment is the woodland, they’ll do much better in a shaded flowerbed rather than planting them in the lawn.
If you’ve had difficulty growing the native American dogwood, you might try growing its tougher cousin the Chinese dogwood. The flowers bloom later, after the tree has already leafed out. And the petals on the blooms are pointed, and it has an interesting fruit that looks like a raspberry.
In addition to white, the native American dogwood also comes in various shades of pink, ranging from the palest pink to red. And for those who can’t decide between pink and white there are trees grafted with both colors. If you’re interested in buying a grafted dogwood, you need to know that they don’t occur naturally, and you should look for the graft scar at the base of the tree.
Now, no matter what kind of tree you choose, if you know where it comes from and how it grows naturally, it stands the best chance of finding a happy home in your garden.