Hi B. dogwoods are moisture lovers generally, so any factor tending in the opposite direction can set the stage for a number of issues, including stem cankers-sunken areas of dying tissue where sap flow is reduced or stopped altogether. IT's a little hard to see what's really going on so I'm stabbing around in the dark here, but these are known factoids with dogwoods.

I see some leaf blotchiness too and that is to be expected by mid-summer. Not a big deal, I don't think. But if you can, ensure steady moisture supply-not saying you haven't-as there's really fairly few other causal factors in making these things predisposed to these canker problems.

As far as cutting the plant back, you could do that, although I'm not sure exactly what would be achieved. Most multi-stemmed shrubs can be handled via renewal pruning-the selective removal of the oldest, thickest "canes", as near to ground level as is possible. This has the effect of making the plant "young" again. In still more extreme cases, one can coppice the plant....that is, cut the entire thing down to ground. It will burst forth with new stems. Not sure this gets to the problem, but these are possible management techniques for such multi-stemmed shrubs.

+oM

Anthracnose, possibly?
Mike

Mike, those leaf blotches could indeed be one of the many variants we call anthracnose. I thought OP was trying to get more at stem lesions and so on, but maybe their concern did include the foliar symptoms. In any case, those are minor in comparison to dogwoods' tendency towards stem cankers-pathogen not at the tip of my brain-which always seem to follow dryness or even just a too-dry location for the plant in question.

B, forgot to mention above, if you do elect to do an extensive cutting-back, why not wait until late winter/early spring, when the plant's energy is poised to make a rapid recovery? Not that this is some foo-foo plant....you can pretty much treat it as you wish....but may as well optimize your actions. That would be a late-winter/early spring treatment.

+oM

I see what you mean, +om. I have no answer for stem problems on that tree, having never experienced that on my Dogwoods and not having grown that tree in particular.
Mike

Thanks for the comments thus far. I was actually concerned that it may be getting too much water. We've had some heavy raining the past month in Iowa and the plant is next to a downspout that was for a while (inadvertently) flowing water into the plant.

I read up on anthracnose in an article about common Dogwood problems prior to posting but couldn't find any of the signs that the article pointed to as being obvious symptoms of this disease. The branches do have some almost scaliness to them which is sort of captured in the photo. There's also some dieback at the base of the plant. The plant hasn't grown much since late Spring last year which seems a bit odd as well.

If I were to prune it, I'd probably wait until late Spring or maybe early Winter..? :)

B, for the vast majority of woody species, and where some other factor doesn't contravene, that late winter/early spring window is best. Plants are poised to immediately begins closing off wounds (from pruning) when done at that time of year, disease pressure is low to nonexistent, so little worry about pathogens entering these wounds, and the plant's energy balance is such that it is well-able to handle this process at that time of year. Of course, sometimes there's still a lot of snow on the ground, so common sense needs to make an appearance as well. I've renewal-pruned a lot of shrubs and although that is the time of year I prefer to do it, the truth is it's not so fun kneeling or crouching in the snow or wet ground all day! But it does serve the needs of the plant.

+oM

Agree with the Septoria-good catch- but that is not the main problem OP is recounting to us, I don't think. And while it is true that plants such as Cornus sericea do seem to acclimate to drier situations, in nature, it is always, not sometimes, but always found near, if not directly adjacent to a body of water. In this region, the shrub-carr plant community type is pretty much based on that set of facts. I maintain that there is simply no site-so long as we're at least talking terrestrial, lol-that is too wet for this species. Evidence seen every day supports that.

I like our regular native version of C. sericea a lot, so much so that for a while, I was transplanting volunteers which I'd find on a regular basis sup to my land, 60 miles north of where I live. Surprisingly to me, these mostly did not fare well. While I've got plenty of wet ground up there, the more acidic soil type, as well as its sandier, faster-draining nature, proved less amenable to this plant than I might have thought. It grows there too, as a native, but nowhere near the abundance and vitality that it exhibits a little further down this way, with our neutral, calcium/magnesium-rich soils and higher water retention characteristics. Hmmmm?

+oM

I loved my ivory halo but I got used to the leaf spot towards the end of summer/fall every year... it's characteristic of dogwood. But it would come right back every year, healthy as ever. I had mine in a full sun area as well.

I moved recently and wanted to buy another dogwood, so I went to the nurseries around and was price shopping. One nursery had their dogwood in a fairly wet area and they had tons of leaf spot, while another nursery nearby had theirs in a sunnier dry spot, no leaf spot. Now, I have those planted in a semi-shady area, it's probably been at least a month or 2. Still no leaf spot.

Willing to bet it's just too much water playing a part here. I'd do a late winter pruning and I'm sure it'll come back healthy next year.

Something is being bred out of these cultivars in terms of disease tolerance. Cornus stolonifera/sericea-take your pick-same plant-is at home at a lake's edge, or in a shrub-carr, which is simply a shrub-dominated wetland on calcareous soils. We've got this native plant community in spades around here and the dogwoods could not be more carefree, healthy, and vigorous. They will literally take over vast swaths of land given the opportunity. So I think this and other cultivars of this otherwise carefree plant have had some vigor, some kind of disease resistance, removed in the quest for the latest gewgaw of variegated leaves or what have you.

+oM

Is it possible to grow a ivory halo dogwood indoors?

Possible perhaps for a short period of time but not long term.

Why would you want to ?

It was my ignorance. I saw it and thought I was in the indoor plant section. I'll try to find a home.

Just want to congratulate the well-informed commenters on this thread. This is exactly the kind of discussion I look for, that makes me choose which forums to hang out on. So thank you all, kudos.

I have similar problems with my Ivory Halo dogwoods. Part sun, sandy loam with excellent drainage, raised beds or sloping terrain, drip irrigation (they never dry out, but then they also don't get sprayed). Something about my environment does not suit these plants. Next late winter I'll coppice my one remaining shrub that always used to be the healthiest (got the most sun), spray the area including the ground with dormant oil or "rose spray" or the like (more research to be done on that, suggestions welcome) and hope for the best.

Something I've noticed with the Ivory Halos is that pruning is best done exactly when it's most miserable: when there's still at least a little snow out there. One year I got all happy about finding something fun to do outside on a warm spring day, pruned the Halos, and they "bled" all over the place for 3-4 days, dehydrating themselves. Sigh.

Fully agree with WisconsiTom that something's been lost in these overbred plants. I'd pick something else if I had it to do again, but it's pretty hard to resist putting an Ivory Halo in composition with something with purple leaves, or a dark-trim area of a house/deck.

Coppicing: I have not done this to any shrub before. My concern is that the crown may force *too* many shoots, given that I'm considering doing it to a ten year old Ivory Halo. Have any of you ever noticed this, and do you thin? If so, when and to what spacing?

Joan

Where do you cut when you prune

It is important to point out that the shrub in question - Cornus alba Ivory Halo - is not the same plant as Cornus sericea. It is just a more compact form of the Tartarian dogwood 'Elegantissima' so no issues about any "over breeding" involved. It doesn't require consistently moist soil and is quite drought tolerant once established. And to further note, Cornus sericea - the common redtwig dogwood shrub - which is also native here - is not requiring of consistently moist conditions either. In fact, it grows naturally along the freeway verges and receives NO supplemental water at all through our very dry summers.

Coppicing these shrubs is SOP. It is the only way to retain that intense stem color, You can either cut the entire shrub back to a determined height - 6, 8, 10 inches, etc.- or cut individual stems back to the ground.

start your own post.. add pix of your plant.. and advise as to your location.. big city name ...

and we can offer precise info on how and WHEN to do this... now may or may not be the best time for such..

ken