This time of year, we long for something, anything in the landscape besides evergreens. Evergreens are ok, but they are, well, green. An they there are the brown stems of shrubs with no leaves.
How about a little red? The red twig or red stem dogwood stands out in the winter landscape, offering a nice contrast in the green and brown background. Or it is beautiful enough to stand on its own for winter interest among other deciduous shrubs.
The native species red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea, formerly C. stolonifera) is a BIG plant, up to 9 feet tall and 10 feet wide. It also suckers to for a colony. Sometimes called red-osier dogwood, it’s usually too big to plant close to your home. It’s a better size for out in the landscape.
However, through the science of horticulture, there are a couple of smaller varieties on the market that work better in smaller landscapes or in containers.
Kelsey’s (trademarked as ‘Kelseyi’) prefers wet or moist soil (photo below courtesy wassonsnursery’s indyplants.jpg). Its dense, rounded form retains leaves at the base of the plant to avoid the bare bottoms some deciduous shrubs get. Grow in part sun to full sun. It gets 24 to 30 inches tall and wide. Consider Kelsey’s for soil retention, a low hedge or as a container shrub.
Arctic Fire (trademarked as ‘Farrow’) is more upright and a tad larger at 3 to 5 feet tall and wide range. Also good for soil retention, Arctic Fire (photo above courtesy provenwinners.com) does well in wet soil and in full or part sun.
Each has slightly rounded, showy white flowers in spring and early summer for pollinators and showy black fruit in fall for birds. Dogwoods usually have lovely fall leaf colors of reds and oranges.
