red twig dogwood pruning

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billr Battle Ground, WA(Zone 8a) Feb 06, 2007

Simple question: when do you prune your red twig dogwoods and how much? The conventional wisdom I read is to prune 1/3 of them at at time. That would leave 2/3 pretty high and rangy in our case. Also, when you prune them shorter, you lose the berries and flowers for that season. We have some that are probably 8' high and at least that across. So I'm just curious about what to do.

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Resin Northumberland, United Kingdom(Zone 9a) Feb 06, 2007

I know of several places with large plantings, where they have not been pruned at all since they were planted, probably 20-30 years ago or more. They look very good.

Resin

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mgarr Hanover Twp., PA(Zone 6a) Feb 06, 2007

I think they mean 1/3 of the stems to within 3" of the ground. This leaves 2/3 to grow and give you height and each year you cut 1/3 of the stems and by the third year they have all been pruned. Older stems tend to get a darker bark and lose their really nice bright colors. You can cut the whole shrub to within 3" of the ground if you don't want the height. You can see from the stems in the front that they have really good color.

Thumbnail by mgarr
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ViburnumValley Scott County, KY(Zone 5b) Feb 06, 2007

What a handsome happy habitat picture! Good show, mgarr.

Only problem is I can't focus on the Cornus because I'm blinded by the well-sited and heavily fruited winterberries.

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