Red Dogwood Bush Pruning
Cornus sanguinea midwinter fire.
Red dogwood bush pruning. Once the buds start to swell you are quickly running out of time. Red twig dogwood will brighten your winter landscaping with its bright red branches. Watering the tree after removing branches helps to ease the shock and reduce the stress it might suffer from. Appropriately pruning your red twig dogwood cornus sericea or cornus stolonifera to spread out however allows it to retain its arching branches and allows you to enjoy its brilliant scarlet.
After pruning your dogwood water it well. Stolonifera bear small white flowers but unlike their treelike cousin flowering dogwood they are primarily prized for their colorful red stems. First remove any dead or damaged stems. This is best done while the tree is dormant and leafless between autumn and early spring.
Prune red dogwood bushes in late fall after the leaves have dropped. Red twig dogwood cornus alba sibirica and red osier dogwood c. Take dogwood cuttings in summer so they can root outside in a cold frame and put on enough growth to be planted the following autumn. Namely the bush s red twigs which are brightest from late winter to early spring.
Prune them in late winter or early spring while they are still dormant. A once a year pruning in late winter is essential to maintaining the bright colors of the twigs which is what these shrubs are prized for. All branch pruning should cut back to the branch collar or the base of the branch nearest the tree trunk. The shrubs actually can provide year round interest despite bearing spring blossoms variegated leaves during summer and berries from summer to fall clearly this plant s common name explains the main reason that people grow it.
Rejuvenating or hard pruning red twig dogwood if you have overgrown dogwood shrubs no matter if it is a red twig dogwood or yellow twig dogwood shrub you can hard prune or rejuvenate prune the shrub in late winter while it is completely dormant. Dead wood may accumulate in the canopy and can be removed after flowering. Choose strong shoots of the current season s growth and push them into gritty moist compost. Your goal in pruning dogwood shrubs such as the red and yellow twigged dogwoods is to remove old stems that have lost their brilliance that will be replaced by new brightly colored stems.