Hello,

Was your land underwater for some time or receive any other type of damage from the hurricane? Like did all the dirt from up the hill wash into your woodland burrying the roots or....?

Here Cornus florida seems somewhat picky in regards to moisture so I am guessing.

Sherry, I believe there must be some kind of disease in our area. Katrina didn't hit that hard over this way, yet two of mine all of a sudden turned brown and died last summer. I know one of them had been here since the late 80's, and the other one was in the woods in the shade. All of the diseases I read about seem to focus on anthracnose in the spring, but mine died mid-summer.

It's amazing how dogwoods take to the wind. They look like inverted umbrellas. I saw one blowing around first hand during the remnants of Dennis in NC.

misssherry, sounds like it could be dogwood anthracnose. Here in TN it has killed all the dogwoods in the woods around my place, but has spared the open grown ones. The spores need cool moist weather to spread so warm dry springs keep the infestation down. Also a sunny open location with plenty of air circulation will tend to keep a plant healthy. UTK is working on a program to find disease resistant dogwoods and I think has released one called 'Appalachian Spring'. I think the provenance on this one is Maryland so deep south MS could be problematic.

I've just started preparing to plant a bunch of dogwood volunteers to add to my few open grown ones, along with a bunch of kousa's, which aren't affected by the anthracnose. Probably 20-30 total.

My older one was out in the open, but it didn't matter. The leaves that came out in the spring looked normal to me, then during the summer all of the branches died off. Once that happened it started sprouting up and down the trunk, but eventually even those died.

Toronado, we left here before the hurricane and were gone for about ?2weeks before coming home to start work, so I don't know what the water levels were. I'm sure the low areas in the bottom of the hollow were flooded - probably for a long time - but dogwoods didn't grow there, just on the well drained areas. Of course, the well drained areas were probably extremely wet for a long time.
It looks more like some disease, probably the dreaded anthracnose, Kenptn, but I don't remember their dying at any particular time of the year. The one healthy dogwood that I mentioned IS growing in a mostly sunny area, though, so I'll be sure and plant my new ones in areas that get a good bit of sun and wind - most of the dead ones were growing in shade. I've heard of 'Appalachian Spring' but never seen it for sale.
Alabama, your description of yours sprouting up and down the trunk is just what mine have done - the top dies back, it sprouts along the trunk, and then it all dies completely.
If I find 'Appalachian Spring' for sale, I'll probably order it, if the price isn't exorbitant - 'don't know how much the provenance would affect it, hopefully, it won't.
Sherry

I've only found one reasonably priced 'Appalachian Spring' - it's offered by Wayside Gardens. Other nurseries carry big ones that are only suitable for pick up.
While I was thumbing through my Forest Farm catalog, I noticed 'Eddie's White Wonder' which is a hybrid of Cornus florida/eastern dogwood and C. nuttallii/western dogwood. 'Anybody ever grown this one, specifically in the Deep South? I think I remember reading that western dogwood won't thrive in the east, but maybe this hybrid is different?
I may order one 'Appalachian Spring' from Wayside Gardens just to see how it does.
Sherry

I've been tempted to order a "Welch's Junior Miss", but I don't want to spend money on something that is doomed from the beginning. I bought a 'Callaway' crabapple yesterday (an impulse buy) which is supposed to do well in our hot/humid climate, but I don't think I'll invest in any more flowering trees.

Western dogwoods are not as cold hardy as C. florida, so that may have some bearing on why they are not common in the east. They can experience a lot of late season bud damage. Warmer, southern climates may be different. And they are equally susceptible to anthracnose, which is devastating native stands along the west coast.

Oddly, 'Eddie's White Wonder' has the best attributes of both species - increased cold hardiness from the florida parentage and the large stature and heavy flowering (big bracts) of the nuttallii. And it is anthracnose resistant as well. I'd wonder about its tolerance to high summer humidity, though.....just not sure about that issue.

Maybe worth trying. It's a beautiful tree and very popular in my area.

Alabama, I ordered Welch's Jr. Miss several years ago and received a spindly little bitty thing that promptly died. If they had sent a more robust one, it may have lived, but I'm not going to try that one again. I love the pictures I see of the red-flowering ones, but the nurseries even admit they won't do on the Gulf Coast. Even though they can be trouble, the small, flowering trees are too beautiful for me to give up on entirely!
That's interesting about Eddie's White Wonder, Gardengal48 - if the "48" in your forum names stands for your year of birth, then you and I are the same age. I think I'll order EWW - FF sells it in the tube size, which is affordable. Depending on which zone map you look at, I'm in Zone 8 or on the line between Zone 8 and 9 - I'm a weather nut, and the cold temps I hear about in Seattle and Portland are colder than what I get here, so I don't think cold will be a problem. I'll be sure and plant it in a spot with ample air flow and a good bit of sun.
Sherry

"If they had sent a more robust one, it may have lived,"

Missherry, don't loose faith in small transplants. I have the best luck with one to two foot tall trees. It is easier and more cost effective for businesses to ship smaller trees than larger ones.

Imagine, with a two foot tree I can dig up 100% of its root mass and mail the fella to you. With a four foot tree the amount of soil I need to deal with grows! Them poor balled and burlaped transplants go through some root loss and shock.

This is from Arnold Arboretum @ Harvard.

{{gwi:331033}}

Really there are plenty of bad mail order nurseries out there that ship all sizes of almost dead plants. Hunt Down the Garden Watch Dog site to check. There are also just plum bad luck days. Your mail order plants get left in a UPS truck parked in the sun in Vegas and :poof: whatever you ordered is dead.

Toronado, I agree with you about shipping small plants, but this pitiful little thing was about 4" tall. It came from a nursery that I've been buying from for years that normally ships GREAT plants, and I've continued to order from them and gotten more great plants. I've noticed that they're not selling this tree any more, so maybe they just had trouble growing it themselves.
I normally pot up the plants I get in spring and keep potting them to bigger pots as they grow, then plant them out in fall. I usually put a "fence" around it that I make myself - if I don't, the deer will usually eat the young tree. Do you have your own mail-order nursery?
I ordered two Eddie's White Wonders, and I'm looking forward to trying them out - 'sure hope they thrive!
Sherry

ForestFarm is a very reputable source and sells high quality plants - you should have no problems with them. And I hope the EWW's do well for you - they tend to be taller and with less horizontal branching than Cornus florida but with big, showy bracts and a lot of 'em. I think growing them on in a container for a season is an excellent idea. Gives you a tiny bit of history to judge how well they might do in your locale and where the best siting might be.

They are dying because trees bark was strip from storm damage. You have got one healthy tree to get yourself established again. ( they root easily )

Dogwood anthracnose swept thru this area yrs ago, but seems to have abated for now, as the survivors put on a decent show this yr for once. Dogwoods in densely wooded, shady areas were the worst affected.

Were they splattered with salt spray? Is there salt in the soil now?