Beth, I suspect Dawn will have the answer for you when she shows up. She's got experience in N. Texas. Good to hear you are doing well, as are your plants. My tomatoes are still tiny. (sigh of relief).

George
Tahlequah, OK

Beth,

Most of Dallas has alkaline soil, so tell your friend that, unless she is in a pocket of acidic soil (and she could be--the further east you go from Dallas proper, the more acidic the soil becomes), a dogwood tree is not a good option for her. Also, dogwoods are understory trees, growing best where they get morning sun and afternoon shade from the hot Texas sun. If her lot has shade either from trees on the lot or from a neighbor's trees AND if she has well-drained ACIDIC, she could plant the tree if she has an eastern or nothern exposure that is shaded in the afternoon. However, the public water supply tends to be alkaline too, so she'll have trouble with that too.

When I lived in Ft. Worth, our soil was in the 8.2 to 8.3 range, which is alkaline, and dogwoods need soil with a pH of 6 to 7, I think. In their native setting, dogwoods grow in very rich soil high in organic matter and, normally, that soil stays fairly moist all the time. Very little native soil in the Dallas area is naturally high in organic material, rich and stays moist. Most soil there is alkaline, clay or rocky, dry, and has low organic content,etc., so it is not ideal for dogwoods.

You really cannot improve soil enough to grow a large tree outside its native range because the tree roots grow out of the improved soil in just a couple of years.

If you can find out what she likes about the dogwood (the foliage, the flowers, etc.), maybe some of us here could think of a similar tree that is better adapted to her conditions.

Dogwood trees are native to East Texas, especially southeast Texas, but normally not to the Dallas area. A lot of people do see the native Mexican Plum in bloom in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (and they are blooming now--I saw some on Monday) and assume that they are dogwoods, so they decide to plant a dogwood......and it doesn't work out well. Other people who are new to landscaping see ornamental pears (like Aristocrat and Bradford) in bloom right now and think those are dogwoods, but they aren't.

Also, dogwood trees really aren't great landscape trees in our climate. They are very prone to disease.

We do have native rough-leaf dogwoods here in southern OK, but they do not look anything like the large-flowered dogwoods people want to grow. They are short, stumpy, shrubby and tolerate clay and heat, but they are almost more like shrubs than trees, although their white berries are very attractive in late summer.

George,

I hope all is well there. It is hot and windy here today and worse tomorrow.

Dawn

dogwood in a yard without trees? I don't think so. Dogwoods are really an under canopy tree. They can't take the sun to much.

Moni

Thanks guys! I was afraid of that for her... I'm waiting for her to email me back so we can get some more details to help her pick out trees that would work for her. I keep trying to get her to join up here... LOL! Will be back with more details when I can!

George,
This is my first year growing from seed, and considering I don't have the best area set up for them, I'm happy with my leggy little guys. Just hoping I can keep them alive, ya know? LOL! :)

Hey everyone! Thanks for your help on this... my friend has decided to just go the Bartlett Pear route... LOL! Of course, I had to bust her balloon a little telling her that they're very soft wood. But she thinks they'll work for her, and that's all that matters.

I appreciate ya'll!