Thursday 3 November 2011

The Cornus' coat of many colours

Some of you will know that I'm a bit of a fan of the Cornus (Dogwood) family of shrubs...
At this time of the year the Dogwood leaves change rapidly from their Summertime fresh greens and pale yellows to Autumnal orange, gold, red, purple and pink.














Most of the deciduous trees and shrubs have a brief moment of flamboyance in the Autumn, followed by a long period of unexciting dormancy until the following Spring. Not so the Dogwoods. Once their leaves have fallen the stems continue the show, in turn many of them becoming bright red and yellow too, and this colour lasts all through the Winter. Can you see now why I love this plant?

12 comments:

  1. That is why I like it too. A beautiful show-off.

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  2. Beautiful Mark - I inherited a variegated dogwood when we moved here - it does nothing like yours.

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  3. There's so many different colours all on one plant.

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  4. One of my favourite plants this time of year. Can't beat those vibrant red stems throughout Winter!

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  5. Beautiful colours! We don't have autumn, so these colours seem absolutely amazing to me.

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  6. Beautiful colours Mark - if it stops drizzling I want to get out to photograph my new acer

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  7. Mark, yet again your post made me SO homesick for England! In our garden in West Sussex we had a hedge of dogwood that I could see from my kitchen window and this time of the year it was glorious!! Thanks for the memory....x

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  8. Lovely photos Mark, if I wasn't already sold on the beauty of dogwoods I would be now!

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  9. Yes I agree, they are lovely. Their red stems in winter, against snow, are something to lok forward to.

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  10. We hope to be the proud owners of a couple Cornelian Cherry Dogwood's next year, wonder if they will someday have as vibrant fall colors as your do.

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  11. I have three of them in my garden all raised from a wood cutting. Very easy to root it. Don't really know what's more beautiful, red bark, white inflorescences or it's autumn leaves.

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