Cornus coreana

This might be correctly Cornus koreana. I don't know. I can't remember from the catalog and it isn't in Hortus III. Anyway, here is proof positive that just because a plant is exceedingly rare that it necessarily means it is worth having--even if it comes from a very good family.

Simply put, this might be the ugliest plan in my collection, perhaps the ugliest plant I know. I realize that this isn't the greatest picture in the world, but an improved picture would only better convey and amplify for your viewing the ugliness this shrub manifests.

Scott

Lest anyone care to argue with me, here is a close-up of the moth-eaten, mildew-ridden, tattered foliage, which is showing no inclination to put on any fall color.

Perhaps others here would like to share their ugliest acquisitions and spare others the horror.

Scott

And now we can see why it is so rare. Even Darwin knew that this one was epigenetically inferior.

But is there any winter interest???

Decumbent, I had one of those ugly rat nest bushes in my yard when I lived in Asia. LOL, I thought it was so ugly because of the gardeners' butchering it with a bushwhacker. Rare???...who would have thought!!....;0)

Well, I grew Cornus coreana for 5 years before I pulled it this season. Didn't have any of the ugly atributes spoken of here. Foliage was exceptionally clean all season, in fact. Fall color, so so - some years. But I just didn't see any ooh-aahh about it whatsoever. Flowers similar to, but inferior in comparison to gray dogwood, IMO. I probably would have kept it if I had the room, but I only have a half acre to play on, so out it goes.

Scott:

You obviously haven't applied your prodigious seed germination talents to selections in the wonderful world of Morus alba. I defy anyone to find an attractive plant amongst the millions infesting the Ohio River valley region.

For KY, you can't get much uglier than one of those great trash-catching Cotoneaster.

I'm still thinking up a thoroughly unattractive plant but VV's comment about M. alba called up a memory from the vast wasteland otherwise known as my brain. Everyone must read what Dirr has to say about M. alba 'Nuclear Blast'!!!!!!!!! Still dusting myself off after rolling out of my chair laughing. Ohhh, and its on page 667, not making 666. Eerie to boot.


Ernie

This message was edited Oct 23, 2006 7:32 PM

I'll have to take a pic of mine tomorrow. It's not quite as ugly as yours. It actually has a bit of form to it, and less spotted leaves. A bit of purple and red here and there too. BUT, it takes up a coveted pondside spot, so it may have to move to make room for something more special.

After some minutes of mental struggle, I can only add the following plants to the "Embarrasment to the Plant Kingdom" list.

Robinia pseudoacacia 'Twisty Baby'

Gleditsia triacanthos 'Pincushion'- I never got to see an open-grown speciman of this plant but the ones that I did see were positively hideous.

Acer negundo

For VV: perhaps the XSorbocotoneaster could be worse than just the plain ol' Cotoneaster. All of the ugliness of Cotoneaster (which I sort of like some taxa anyway) combined with the excessive disease susceptibility of Sorbus.

Regards,
Ernie

Ernie:

Forever in your debt for the second and third morning belly laughs.

Add the Dirr descriptions in Melia and Ulmus pumila to the "should never have been born" lists.

Lest anyone should take me to task on the X Sorbocotoneaster bit in my previous post, I should clarify. I was using supposition and combining the bad traits of both plants for the sake of a laugh. I did see some pictures of Sorbus and, if I remember correctly, X Sorbaronia fruit that were absolutely outstanding at the Northern Plant Conference. They were enough to make one want to go out and hunt down the plants for fruit display alone. I suspect that these are worthy plants for northern areas of the country.

Regards,
Ernie

You will find many in my garden and I love the prostrate nature of the cotoneaster. After all if we grew only plants that were zone up type what would we have to provide green on the spring following a nuclear winter. We need to plan ahead. This global warming will only go on for a short while. You IL onianians have the best of both worlds. You have all of montanas good topsoil from the last glaciation and we warm up the artic masses before they decend on you this winter.

Well, not so bad---getting a bit of horizontal form, some purple/red fall color. I think it can stay for another year.

Dang, Kevin, yours looks a lot better than mine! I wonder if deer munchage might be causing the ugly form on mine. It's on the other side of the fence. No obvious damage, but I haven't looked all that closely. Hard to overlook the heavy mildew on my foliage, but apparantly none on yours.

Scott