Cornus, Eastern Dogwood, Flowering Dogwood 'Cherokee Princess'

I have 3 of these dogwoods in my Hilton Head Island, SC garden. I liked the idea that they are supposed to stay relatively compact. I pla...Read Morented them in the Fall (best time for planting where I live, before the summer heat sets in) and they all bloomed their first year. I was astounded. The 2 in half shade are doing better than the one in full sun, but all are fine, and disease free.

I paid $49.95 to a highly reputable local nursery for my Cherokee Princess, then watched it slowly die over about 4 years. I planted i...Read Moret about 10 feet from a wild dogwood which is still growing well. I think it was maybe in a bit too shaded location for the Cherokee Princess.

I also bought a Cherokee Brave (red) a year later (same nursery) and planted it in a pretty shady location also and it seems to be doing fine.

This same nursery told me, 2 weeks ago, that they were no longer suggesting Cherokee Princess. They now suggest Appalachian Spring instead.

Unfortunately, I have had to remove two recently planted Cherokee Princess dogwoods from my property. Although dogwoods are native to my ...Read Morearea and though the trees were healthy when installed, they were absolutely devastated by powdery mildew. I treated them for three years and they flowered beautifully and produced fine red berries but every leaf from bract to dormancy was withered and wrinkled from disease. This is true of nearly every garden-variety dogwood I see in my region. The humidity and perhaps even pollution of the midatlantic region seems to be too much for them. I removed the trees because they were possibly dangerous to other plants because of their hosting of mildew, and also because they were extremely unattractive. I encourage anyone who hopes to plant a dogwood tree to carefully survey other dogwood trees in the area to see if they are healthy; if not, save your money and buy a different type of tree.

'Cherokee Princess' flowering dogwood is probably the most commonly offered white flowering dogwood available in the central KY area, and...Read More most likely in the whole Ohio River valley region.

It is a precocious plant (flowering heavily on young plants), establishes easily and grows well. It is subject to the same pest problems as all the rest of Cornus florida, but these are not severe issues if the plant is healthy, well-sited, and reasonably cared for.