Gray dogwood question

17 years ago

I waited 3 years for my gray dogwood to bloom and set fruit. (It was large enough --10 ft. or so--, and tree-like in form. I guess it just needed some phosporus, as I sprinkled some fossilized seabird guano on the ground around it this year, and that seemed to do the trick.) I was SO pleased. Anyway, all of a sudden, most of it's branches just arched over, and when we got some wind, many cracked. (Last year, it flopped over as well, but after tying it up with a few long sticks, the branches "stiffened up", and I was able to remove the sticks.) This year, my SO had to do some 'surgery' on it, and it continues to live, but it's branches continue to break, necessitating more 'surgery'. Is this common in a gray dogwood? It has such a pretty fall color, and such great wildlife value, I was thinking that if it ends up dying, that I'd replace it with another one, but not if this is a common problem with these shrubs.

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prairiemoon2 z6b MA
17 years ago
kelp, thanks for your post. I have a gray dogwood planted 3 or 4 yrs ago, that hasn't bloomed yet and I wondered if it ever would. Mine is a shrub with downward direction to the branches. I haven't seen any break. When the wind comes it moves nicely with it. It is planted on the north side of a south facing fence though. Not exactly in the windiest part of the yard. My fall color is a muddy yellow that I'm not that fond of. I haven't fertilized it at all and it is in part shade, with only a couple of hours of morning sun. I do like the shrub's appearance and it was thankfully a fast grower as I needed a screen. The one thing I don't like about it, is that it suckers. It REALLY suckers quite a bit and far from the base of the shrub. That worries me and I hope I won't have to pull it out. I put two hydrangea in front of it and I hope that will keep it out of the lawn at least.

Here is a photo...

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