Blooming in March

It rained here yesterday and I had huge yellow puddles all around the house .. took me a minute to realize it was pollen being washed off the roof.

I don't know what it is about gloomy rainy days - but they really seem to make the dogwoods stand out even more brightly :)

The Monarda has spread like wild fire in the back bed...the Peonies have buds (thinking I better get those covered for tonight's cold?) and the Tricyrtis has a lot of offsets coming up this year...

Love the dogwood photo! I have a kousa that has never really done much. It's planted as an understory tree, thinking about moving it.
Entlie

That is a really pretty dogwood shot. I swear the dogwoods are blooming more this year than I've seen in a while.

I've noticed that too about the dogwoods .. they all seem to be saying "look at me!".

Entilie - all but one of our dogwoods are understory plantings for oaks - are they blooming at all for you? what type of tree's are they under?

Love this beautiful pink dogwood. We have two of them in the front of our house.

BSD- beautiful! I bought a baby pink dogwood a couple years ago. It hasn't bloomed yet, but I have hope!

Rednyr- my dogwoods that get a lot of sun have been blooming for a couple weeks, but those that are truly understory and get a lot of shade are just starting to bloom.

Rednyr - the kousa is mostly under pines and maples. And not in real deep shade. I'm not usually here this time of year (on boat), but it barely grows and neighbors say it doesn't bloom. At least I thought I'd move to the fringe border of the lawn, it would get about 1/2 shade there. Not until fall, though. Barely leafing out now.
Entlie

I'd almost be scared to move a dogwood, I've always heard they don't transplant well, and every tree I've tried to establish in my yard, either purchased from Lowe's or my parents house has died. Could just be my soil (doubtful), but I've heard others say to be careful when moving them too. If it's not blooming this year though, it may be worth a shot at moving it.

Check the soil ph, especially the one's under pines...Dogwoods like ph 6-7, if you have older pines the soil be my around 4'ish and that would be a hindrence...just a quick thought :)

Thanks. I really should do that.

We had a wonderful wild dogwood with unusually large flowers at our Columbia home and it regularly had seedlings underneath. We learned the most successful way to transplant these babies was to lift them with lots of soil clinging to the roots and directly plant them where we wanted them. When we tried to pot them up with potting mix they didn't make it and if the soil fell off the roots they didn't make it either.

We have many white dogwoods on two lots. The orignal ones are 50-60 years old. I have transplanted the others from the many seedlings that appear. If you have azaleas that thrive then so will dogwoods. They like acid soil and go light on fertilizer. I never fertilize mine. Move them after they loose all their leaves. If you wait until they leaf-out, they won't make it.
This picture is one of the original dogwoods. Their lifespann (I have been told ) is 50 years. We will have to cut down 5 this year that we are pretty sure are close to 60 yrs. old.

That's strange, I always read Dogwoods were neutral soil ph not acidic and that's what we relayed to customers at the Nursery I used to work for...learn something new everyday on here! :)

Makes sense - we also have a couple of azaleas that don't do well in that same general area.
Entlie

rednyr, You made me stop and question myself. I was afraid I had given you the wrong information. The streets in Conway are lined with dogwoods and this time of year they are beautiful. In all of the homes on the historical trail, there are always large azalea bushes under the dogwoods. The soil here in the city is acidic. If you venture out a mile or more it is a different story. Dogwoods do not do well in the new subdivisions.
Check out this info.


http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/trees/hgic1010.html

LOL...didn't mean to make you question yourself!! really there are so many different thoughts on the subject it's only when we are faced with 'why isn't this doing well' that we start to dig (yes pun intended) for answers!

Since the AZ aren't doing well either and there are Pines in the area I would then look at soil type itself...

Of course reading more today on the net there are numerous stories of watering techniques or lack of or too much water that bud set or lack there of is blamed on...so really...it's just narrowing it down to what happened the previous year, where is it planted (slope, flat or pooling area) and oh about another 20 things I read on the internet trying to find the common denominater) LOL

With all this talk about dogwoods and seeing them blooming all over town, I decided I NEED one. A pink one actually. And yes, it is a need, not a want.
Barb

Sigh, I'd rather have a pink Yoshino Cherry.

Yes! We got in pink dogwood at work. I now have one in my backyard, waiting to get in the ground!

You will love your pink dogwood. Ours are 10 years old now and they are more beautiful each year. They were slow to grow at first but after 2 years they really took off. They are now around 18' tall. That is their mature height --- I think.

This one is going next to a silver maple that's on its way out. They're life span is about 15 years. by the time the dogwood get happy and settled, a few years, it'll be time to cut the (then) dying silver maple down.
Dogwoods were my Mom's favorite tree tree and my husband likes pink, so that's my justification for buying it!
Barb