Plant of the Week - March 2nd 2019

I love this week’s plant pick, because it’s such a great small tree / large shrub, that most folks don’t know and is often confused with another plant flowering after this one flowers…which is one of the first to flower in the early spring.And, it’s a dogwood that’s not like your ordinary dogwood!Its’ Cornus mas, or commonly known as Cornelian Cherry Dogwood.Usually grown multi-stemmed like a large shrub, you will find them single trunked as well.Unlike the white dogwoods you may be familiar with, this one flowers yellow in early spring, and is often mistaken as a large forsythia bush.Those flowers produce a nice sized red berry which mature late summer and are very showy and very much edible by you (preserves and syrups) and the wildlife.And what’s nice about this dogwood…it grows in partial shade to full sun!Hardy to Zone 4 / 15-25 ‘ high and wide / scaly exfoliating bark / very few if any insect or disease issues / purplish red fall color but not all that showy.