link below to pix .... just flipping through the first 3 pages shows trees... hedges.. and nice little shrubs... i will presume.. the little ones are pet projects, that involve a lot of maintenance .... or a named variety the has dwarf tendencies .....

it seems.. that you are struggling with the definition of SHRUB .... dont all shrubs regenerate themselves from ground level ... hence the removal of up to 1/3 per year .. to keep it smaller in size ...

in my estimate... having previously lived in suburbia .... on a restricted lot... IF SOMETHING DOESNT FIT... it needs to go ...

we have all made bad decisions in choosing stock ... and sometimes we have to bite the bullet ... and be done with it .... that is obviously your decision ... unless you have a space way out back.. where it can live free range ....

any plant.. that grows at the rate you noted .... is not going to stay within the confines that you want .... whats it going to do.. when it really gets going... lol ...

good luck

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

My Cornus racemosa is still small, so I haven't dealt with it. I do have a Sambucus canadensis that is doing exactly what your Cornus is doing. Just as you divide forbs in the garden, so did I with the Sambucus. The suckers are growing very nicely out in my parents timber. I don't really want to prune any of my plants (grasses, forbs, shrubs, trees), because they are all native/indigenous to this county. No one goes into the woods to prune trees or shrubs, or to divide any other plant, so I'm not really wanting to do it here either. But we do live on a very small lot, and I want the Sambucus for the wildlife value it provides. The same reason I planted the Cornus racemosa. I don't agree with Ken in that if it doesn't fit, it needs to go ☺

so terry ... if you bought a mis-labeled plant... and it threatened to eat your yard and house... you would just live with it ....

though most things can be beaten back with a stick .. and kept at a manageable size ... there SHOULD come a time.. when the monsters just need to go ...

i always make the suggestion that removal is an option ... too many newbie gardeners... think their plants are like children .. and have to be retained forever .. they dont ... but that is obviously the owners choice ... and they should be provided ALL options.. so they can make an informed decision ... i obviously have no vested interest in the ultimate decision ...

but a problem has to be solved.. and sometimes that means.. getting rid of a plant ...

good luck
ken

Hi Ken, the only thing I've bought that was mis-labled was a Crabapple. It wasn't really mis-labled, but rather had no tag. If I did buy something mislabled now, it would be returned to the native nursery that I purchased it from. Even 30 yrs. ago, when my very first garden was started, I was extremely picky in my plant choices....I don't want to spend my days forever deadheading and I don't want to always have to prune shrubs and/or trees. I'd also like to say that it's not always newbie gardeners that think they can beat something back with a stick!! My parents fall into that category ☺ Yes, a gardener always needs as many options as possible to make sure they make the ultimate decision for them. I read one option from you and I provided another. Like you, I have no vested interest in the OP's choice or his/her/their ultimate decision. That rests entirely on him/her/them.

I have a long shrub row along my property line that has five gray dogwoods planted in it. Some of the suckers are three to four feet away from the main clump. I snip them off at ground level but I have more every year so I hope there's a better solution than that. They make a product called Sucker-Stopper but I don't know if it would work.

Thank you both Ken and Terry. I think you both have a valid point of view and I do like options and that is why I post....to get as many as possible.

Ken...I would be someone who would struggle a little too long trying to cope with a problem rather than just giving up on it and replacing it, so I do appreciate your direct approach.

On the other hand...as I said in my original post, it is working well in many respects. We have a difficult site to garden in. A small 1/4 acre lot, surrounded with not one, but four mature Silver Maples in neighboring yards, one of which was planted in 1950 and is massive and only about 6ft from our fence. A second one is within a foot of our fenceline. We also have a neighbor who planted not one, but 'seven' spruce trees within a foot of our fence with a London Plane Tree growing up behind those about another 8 feet away. Plus one Norway Maple in the corner of our property. This is all surrounding just the back yard, not the whole lot. [g] Deep shade in the corners and full shade in portions of the back lot line and part shade in other areas. Dry for the most part.

We've planted this Cornus just under the canopy of the massive Silver Maple to see if we could find something that would grow there. We were afraid nothing would be vigorous, so we are happy with that aspect of it. It also has a very attractive presentation with the horizontal aspect of the branch structure. It is filling in an area that badly needed to be screened where little would probably grow. So it is performing. The only problem is with the suckering.

I have no idea what I could replace it with, that would do the job, so it would really have to become a real nuisance for me to want to remove it.

I can give it room to do it's own thing in the back of it. It has space to stretch out toward the tree and the fence. I did plant shrubs on one side of it, that if it keeps spreading out, it will run into. A Viburnum carlesii which is outside of the canopy of the tree about 6ft to the left of the Cornus and in part sun. It is proving to also be very happy there, with some attention to making sure it gets enough water. This year has been easy to do that.

I have perennials...ferns and hostas, etc. on the other side where it is shadier which are doing fairly well, considering. So those won't be too difficult to move if necessary. There is grass about 5 feet in front of it, and I am wondering if it will sucker into the grass?

I do want it to grow and allowed for about a 10x10 ft shrub and could give it a few more feet than that moving some neighbors, which I expected to do eventually, just not so soon...lol. I do want to keep the size under some control. Especially if it might get a lot bigger than the 10x10 I planned for.

I am very unhappy to hear yours is suckering that far from the trunk, christie. I wouldn't mind needing to snip off the suckers but personally, I wouldn't use a chemical product.

My question is, does snipping off the suckers actually provoke the shrub to put more effort into pushing out more and further from the shrub?

Another thought is, could you just circle the shrub with a shovel once in awhile to keep the rootball within a certain area?

Thanks...pm2

Dividing the Sambucus doesn't appear to invigorate it. Now snipping off the suckers of a Populus tremuloides (Quaking Aspen), does appear to invigorate that particular tree. I don't have the answers to your questions. Personally, I would try anything (without getting rid of it first). I don't think I would snip any suckers, as Christie has said, they only re-sprout. Try digging them up and giving to a friend, or try circling the shrub first to see if that works. I have a Cornus racemosa here, however it's too small right now to have any first hand knowledge. This plant is not my first one, it simply wasn't a concern at our other home (it had a lot of room to grow). Have you asked over at the Native Forum, since this is a native shrub? Perhaps someone there might have the answers to your questions. ☺

PM2, I have a couple of bridal wreath spireas that sucker quite a bit, sometimes up to 5' away from the shrub. I am a bit rough with it in that I grab the sucker and pull as hard as I possibly can to unearth the root as far back to the original shrub as possible and snip it off there. I have not found that this causes more suckers, but it is also a different shrub from yours. One of mine is not near perennials so I don't worry too much about how much soil in the general area is being disturbed. The other is near some perennials, so I am more careful, but nonetheless try to get as much of that root out as close back to the shrub as possible. I honestly don't have any particular reason for doing it this way! Just seemed like a good plan when it first started happening, so that is what I have always done.

thyme2, thanks for another idea. Actually, that makes sense to me too. I am definitely going to try it and see what happens. If I can get them out that way easily enough, I would like to see if that will keep it manageable.

Thanks for sharing that idea...I'll let you know how it works with this cornus.

:-)

Terry...I forgot to say...yes, I will ask over on the Natives forum when I get a chance. Someone there might have some specific experience with this shrub. Thanks :-)

The Wildlife Forum has had some discussions on gray dogwood also. There might be some helpful information in that forum.

I did what thyme does with her Spirea. I did that one year and tossed it in for the weekly yard waste pick-up. It worked and it worked well. I wanted to share some of my Sambucus though, that's why I went to dividing it. I decided I wanted to share my wealth...☺

I see no alternate to yanking the suckers out. Digging, sharply, down with a shovel, right where the sucker joins the main plant, might make the it come out with less disturbance to the soil surface. I have, purposely, planted suckering shrubs at the edges of the woods, but not in the areas where I want a neat garden. Still, I see some people want to plant an area, like they were placing furniture, and forget about it. Most plants have, as part of their agenda, taking over the planet.

Hello again...

christie I did go back and read some of the posts about gray dogwood, but not a lot was discussed about the suckering.

terry...my sambucus sutherland's gold has had wonderful spring display followed by sudden dying of whole branches for the past two years. Now it is almost entirely dead and needing to come out. I have not idea what happened to it, but have heard three other people report having the same thing happen to theirs. Everything else in that bed is growing well.

bogturtle...good tip about trying to cut the suckers off at the trunk rather than disturbing the soil. I will try it that way too and see which works best for us. I would have to disagree though, that most plants aim to take over the world. I find there are many plants that are very well behaved and I am one of those people who attempt to fill the garden with plants that stay put. One reason is because I have a small garden.