Flowering Dogwood Trees: A Favorite Tree Of America
Pat Malcolm
The State of Virginia has adapted the dogwood flowering tree as
its State tree, and many cities in America have named themselves
'The Dogwood City.' Atlanta, Georgia holds a spring festival
every April to coincide with the flowering of the of the
dogwood trees in Atlanta, Georgia. The Dogwood Festival has
continued for 70 years, successfully attracting visitors for
events such as outdoor musical extravaganzas in Piedmont Park
and the attraction of many artists to display and sell to those
visitors who wish to buy pottery, sculpture, oil paintings, and
photographs.
Flowering dogwood trees, Cornus florida, were discovered in the
South by William Bartram in 1773; these trees were beautifully
described in his exploratory book, Travels (page 399). Near
Mobile, Alabama. Bartram encountered a grove of dogwood trees
that aggressively covered an area 9 miles long. The dogwood
trees were growing so thick that sunlight was practically
excluded, and almost all other plant life was excluded except
for an occasional white flowering Magnolia grandiflora. The
land on which the white flowering dogwood tree grew was level
soil that was loose with a humid black organic mould on the
surface with dogwood roots growing into a stiff yellowish clay.
The limbs of the flowering dogwood trees were interlocking and
spread horizontally at a tree height of 12 feet. The vast
interlocking limbs of the dogwood trees covered the entire area
as a shade tree that cooled the camping area used by William
Bartram. After exploring for another seventy miles, Bartram
wrote “spacious groves of this fine flowering tree, which must,
in the spring season, when covered with blossoms, present a most
pleasing scene; when at the same time a variety of other sweet
shrubs display their beauty.
The white flowering dogwood is a native tree to the forests of
America and has been exported worldwide as a seedling dogwood
and as a grafted white dogwood also flowering in pink and red.
The pink flowering dogwood is available to buy as a seed grown
tree, but the most desirable, stable, predictable pink dogwood
trees are nursery grafted trees. Red flowering dogwood trees
are not available as seedling trees, but as grafted cultivars,
such as the Cherokee Chief, red flowering dogwood tree.
The dogwood tree, Cornus florida, is very adaptable in America,
ranging from Massachusetts to Florida, and the tree is generally
grown as an understory tree 12-15 feet tall, although some old
specimens of 40 feet tall are recorded. The flowering dogwood
tree is perfect for planting and growing in a small garden or
in large parks and as big landscape specimen trees. Dogwood has
the unusual quality of growing well when planted beneath pine
trees, where only a few other shrubs such as redbud trees,
azalea plants, and camellia shrubs can compete successfully,
because of the dense root pine tree competition near the
surface of the ground.
The flowering of dogwood trees begins in early spring and the
flowering lasts 2 to 3 weeks. Oval berries of bright red are
formed following the blooms and persist on the trees into fall
and winter after leaves are shed, and until they are eaten by
wildlife and birds. In the fall the dogwood trees are covered
in brilliant red leaves that change to purple. The fallen
dogwood leaves are very fragile and usually easily deteriorate
without raking. Flowering dogwood trees will grow well
underneath oak tree shade as well as under pine trees, but the
dogwood tree remarkably will grow well in full sun. Dogwood
trees are well adapted to stress and are very tolerant of dry
weather. Dogwood trees are tolerant of cold weather, and thrive
in USDA zones 5 through 9.
Every landscape gardener appreciates the spring blooms of the
white flowering dogwood trees as a background companion tree
for flowering redbud trees or in a combination of flowering
azalea shrubs in colors of red, pink, purple, or white.
Dogwood trees can be propagated by growing from the seed or by
rooting the cutting, but the best dogwood cultivars are grown
from grafted trees. The Cloud Nine, flowering, white dogwood
tree produces very large (hand-size) blooms, especially in the
juvenile stage. The Weaver's Select, white, flowering dogwood
tree is grafted and can produce a flower 6 inches wide.
The dogwood tree has been rumored to have been the wood from
which the crucifixion cross of Jesus Christ was made in the
year 33 AD. This rumor is ridiculous in several respects:
first, there is not Biblical record of dogwood trees in the
Scriptures of the Old Testament Bible or the New Testament.
Most plant references in the Bible are very vague except for a
few references to the date palm tree, olive tree, pomegranate
trees, fig tree, and grape vines. The identity of those plants
and trees is obvious, because of their fruits that are
produced, but accurate plant identity could not be done easily
until Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish physician, suggested rules on
naming plants in the early 1700's.
There are many species of dogwood trees and shrubs, but it is
unlikely that any of the Mideastern species of dogwood trees
grew trunks large enough to shape into a crucifixion cross. The
wood of the dogwood tree is so hard and dense that nails driven
into the wood would split the wood. That tree definitely could
not have been the North American dogwood tree, Cornus florida,
since that tree did not grow in Israel at the time of Jesus
Christ.
Perhaps the reason for the rumor is that the dogwood tree was
the wood of the crucifixion cross is the fact that the four
white bracts (flower) are shaped like a cross. This resemblance
of a white cross-shaped flower occurs in innumerable species of
flowers of trees and, of course, should not be given any weight
of evidence of the dogwood tree wood being the substance of
crucifixions by the Jewish High Priest and the Roman rulers.
About The Author: Patrick A. Malcolm, owner of TyTy Nursery,
has an M.S. degree in Biochemistry and has owned and operated
TyTy Nursery for over three decades.
http://www.tytyga.com
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