All about Cornus

24 Apr '06 4:09 am

Possibly my favourite tree is the cornus or dogwood. It has beautiful flowers - bracts really, that last for weeks - and magnificent autumn foliage. Besides a few of the shrubby cornuses that I have managed to find or grow from seed, we have Cornus florida and Cornus contraversa. The latter is an evergreen and rather lame compared to C. florida.
I was looking at Moosey's cornuses in the 2004 autumn shots and wondering: are they C. florida or C. kausa? I only recently found out that they are easy to tell apart: I include pics of C.florida's seed. Apparantly C. Causa has 'strawberry-like' fruit, which must be much like those of C, contraversa...
Question

Now I can't find C. kausa anywhere in South Africa. Is there anyone out there who has experience of growing both (or either) who can comment on whether C. kausa is likely to do as well for me as C. florida most definitely does?

24 Apr '06 5:41 pm

Eek! The proper names of my Dogwoods - when one considers I bought them simply in honour of my old dog Taj, not knowing much else about them. I was so scared that there'd be too much wind here, and not enough rainfall. Well, I was wrong, and what luck!

However, I will consult whatever labels I can find in the depths of the kitchen drawers. The trendy, really slow growers don't seem to have anything resembling a strawberry-like fruit. I vaguely remember names like Cherokee Chief and Cherokee Sunset. Cute.

As long as the wind doesn't blow all the leaves off, I'm startng to get more reds and oranges. It can become quite a nice obsession, colour-checking one's Dogwoods...

24 Apr '06 8:22 pm

...the only experience I have on the Cornus field is by my Cornus Alba , with tiny white blooms, whose stems are lemony yellow during Winter. But I searched in my huge plant book, and look what I found:

" Cornus Florida : Deciduous , spreading tree. H 6m (20 feet), S 8m (25F). Fully hardy. In late Spring bears white or pinkish-white bracts surrounding tiny , insignificant flowers. Oval, pointed dark green leaves turn red and purple in Autumn."

" Cornus Kousa : Desiduous , vase-shaped tree or shrub. H.7m(22f),S.5m (15f).Fully hardy. Flower heads of large, white bracts, surrounding insignificant flowers, appear in early summer, followed, after a hot summer, by strawberry-like fruits. Oval, glossy, dark green leaves turn bright red-purple in Autumn."

"...C. Florida and C. Kousa dislike shallow, chalky soil."

"...Propagate C. Florida and C. Kousa by seed in Autumn or by softwood cuttings in Summer."

"...The fruits of some species may cause mild stomach upset if ingested; contact with the leaf hairs may irritate skin."

Good luck!

26 Apr '06 12:05 am

Hi again! There was an almighty storm approaching on Sunday as I wrote my post, so I decided to submit it before the storm took out the power, and before I had posted the pics. Ten seconds later the lightning took out our ISDL line, and it has only just been fixed! Rolling Eyes

So here are the pics that go with my post - pip-like fruit on C.florida, berry-like fruit on C. contraversa, similar to those of C. kausa I suspect...
Thanks Liza for your info, which seems to support that if one will grow, so will the other. And your names, Moosey, I have seen in books relating to, I am almost certain, C.florida! Have you had seed yet on your trees?

2 May '06 6:42 am

Hi everyone,

I found this site a few weeks back and thought I'd join. I take my hat off to you, Moosey - I think your garden is fantastic but I don't envy you the work. I'd love to come for a walk round though. I like the way you've named all your little paths and walks - I think it's quaint and something we'd do in England - but then you've got so many you've probably no other way to refer to them all!

I saw the posting on cornus and thought I'd add a bit about mine. It's a young kousa only planted this year so it hasn't done much yet, but the white brachts (as the flowers are called) are so different to the other flowers you get on small trees and shrubs. I can't wait to see mine flowering.

You might get lucky - I might even post some pictures of my gardens (when they're done). I have a woodland garden at the front and a natural style garden very much under construction at the back. I need tons more shrubs to fill both gardens out but I'm slowing getting there. I'm proud to say that I've done 99% of the work myself (but as my sister would say, you can tell!).

Anyway toodles for now, and I hope to speak to you all soon.

Julia
highpeak2609
Yorkshire, UK

2 May '06 8:09 am

well doggone now here is a tree i dont have and would not know it if it bit me Embarassed

you know i get lost when the common names are not used i have a yates guide sitting on my computor permernantly

2 May '06 8:38 am

Hi Janbay,

If you'd like a nice pic, here's one from a very good site I use for reference.

The top picture doesn't do the brachts justice - see the bottom one.

http://www.crocus.co.uk/search/results/?ContentType=Plant_Card&ClassID=978&CategoryID=

Jules

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