Dogwood Blosoms

Here is a small tree that fits well under larger trees, giving your yard a mature, balanced appearance.  It is especially appealing to thrushes in the fall.  Because my yard is small and I already have several trees, and I dearly love the song of the Swainson’s Thrush.  This one is on my wish list for 2010!

FLOWERING DOGWOOD (Cornus florida)

Snow white dogwood blossoms transform the landscape, blooming after the Sassafras in spring.  Woodland edges positively spring to life when they bloom.  Flowering dogwood is a “super-attractive bird tree.”  Birds find shelter and nesting sites in its branches, and you can time the fall migration by watching the berries mature; bright red berries ripen at the peak of migration for thrushes.  The biggest challenge with dogwoods can be in deciding where to plant them—they are an understory tree which means they can be grown below taller trees.   They range from 10 to 20 feet.  They have characteristic horizontal branching if they are in high shade, but they develop a full, rounded crown if in the sun.  Good drainage and air circulation are important as healthy trees resist dogwood anthracnose.  Hardy in Zones 5 to 9.  To assure hardiness, northern gardeners are advised to buy trees propagated from northern stock.

Dogwood Trees

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 12:57 am and is filed under Bird Information and Facts, Gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.