Patience.

Dan

I only have a few plants that have begun to leaf out due to the very very unseasonably warm temps last week. I have several plants that don't even have swelling buds yet.

Now its super windy, rainy and in the 30's...there goes my Magnolia blooms...thanks mother nature!

As mentioned above...patience...if its May 7th then we should be concerned.

I remember mine took a long time to leaf out the first two years, and they also didn't flower until the second year.

Mine were purchased from Lowes, they were container grown and only four feet tall...don't know if that made a difference.

Ours are just leafing out here.

Arktrees

Kousa is just starting to leaf out here. It has been unusually warm the last few weeks. Blooms are expected in June.

My kousa is still just buds and its going to be a while...tonight will be 29F.

tj

My Kousa dogwood was planted last August . We had a severe winter and it hasn't leafed out very small bloom buds but no leafing is it going to get leaves soon ?

Connie, it is probably getting close to time for yours. Don't worry about a week or so though if you are starting to notice others Kousas in your area leafing out. Something about my micro-climate makes things in my yard a few days behind their counterparts at work and in the true suburbs.

joannemb, you are a zone behind me. My Cornus Florida dogwoods are just now flowering. The youngest ones have barely a leaf showing.

Don't give up on them yet.

In Southern Connecticut my Kousa is a long way from leafing but half of the lower branches will not leaf at all...my big established tree has been hit by scale.
The lower branches are all black (from the fungus/excreta?) and there are white eliptical spots on the dead/dieing branches.

I sprayed as much of the tree as I could with horticultural oil...although couldnt reach the top even with a garden hose sprayer.

Any thoughts on the problem? Solution?

I'm in the same zone and my Cornus kousa is not even close to leafing out. The buds are swelling though.

I checked a couple pictures from past years of the blooms on this tree, both were dated June 4th, so it usually blooms in early June here.

I agree with "patience". Here in zone 7a ours have just begun leafing out.

May 2 -Zone 5 --still nothing happening- the buds are very small???

Mine aren't leafing out yet. Perfectly normal.

Kousas are a little late compared to native trees around me and other stuff I've planted.

What I've also noticed with regard to planting in general (very scientific...lol) is that it takes 12-18 months for a newly planted tree to adjust to the local hardiness patterns. Until that second growing season begins, there is weird timing with leafing out and leaf drop because the plant hasn't adjusted yet to your specific area.

Hope that helps.

Yes, Kousas leaf out (and bloom) later than native flowering dogwood.

I planted mine in early November in Northern VA. It is still just branches. There's nothing on them at all. The branches seem supple... Not brittle, so I think it's still alive. I hope so. Is this normal? Is there something I should put on it or in the soil to help it? I really want the street to survive. Any advice would be appreciated.

May 13, 2023. This is YEARS after this post was started. It's exactly the information I am seeking. BUT it's very frustrating that the dates are not on these posts. I'm close to Niagara Falls, Ontario & there are no signs of leaves on my Kousa Dogwood. It is the first year that there are flower buds and I am ready to cry because I think my little tree is dead. Is there still hope, on this date, for survival?

If there are plump buds present, then the tree is not dead. As noted previously in this thread, kousas are the latest to leaf out and flower of any flowering dogwood tree. Flowering is not until early June or later depending on location and weather, and the leaves only appear a week or so before the blossoms. In actuality, the 'flowers' are bracts or modified leaves......

I have a 'Scarlet Fire' kousa dogwood, which I planted in March 2022. It leafed out last year, but so far (as of May 13, 2023) this year it has not yet leafed out. The only leaves to appear this year were near the base of the trunk, around the graft union. I have lightly scraped several areas of the branch tips, and they appear to be a whitish-green flesh underneath the bark. They are also pliable (bendable) so I have reason to believe it is living. We had a flash freeze right at the Christmas 2022 holiday, where the temperatures plummeted, with strong winds, but I covered my tree with frost protection cloth. Then we had an abnormally warm February, followed by bouts of cold throughout March and April. I'm attaching several pics I took of it April 17, 2023, including two of the leaf foliage near the base. The foliage near the base has since died back. Can anyone give me some encouraging news?

What zone are you? We're 7b here, had a super chilling event around Christmas here and our Kousa did just fine. This is last weekend.

I'm also NC zone 7B (Chapel Hill). The semi-wooded area where I planted my 'Scarlet Fire' dogwood was previously populated by invasive running bamboo, which originally came from a neighbor's property abutting my back yard. I had the bamboo professionally cut down in October 2021, and have personally kept its regrowth cut back since then. Before I planted it in March 2022, I cleared out bamboo roots from the planting hole as best as I could, and the dogwood leafed out normally last year. Please see attached photos. The first two are from June 2022. I re-caged the dogwood in January 2023 in the last photo, to prevent it being browsed by animals. Do you think the bamboo may be trying to strangle the dogwood's (root) growth? Or that the cage fabric is preventing enough sunlight from reaching the dogwood? If so, I could probably transplant the dogwood elsewhere. Thank for any insights you can provide.

Kevin, In my experience leaves at the bottom only indicate that the top part of the tree may be dead. My little tree did that for 2 years & had to re-grow both years. In your pic I see a plastic tag just above those leaves - you need to cut that off so it doesn't compress the trunk.

I'm still waiting for signs of life (May 22, Zone 6b, close to Niagara Falls, Ontario).

Thanks for your reply! I guess I'll continue the waiting game with this dogwood, given what you told me your experience with yours was. It sure has been a strange weather year so far.