Sourwood

The red twig dogwood has always flopped. I’ve thinned it out every now and then so this isn’t as bad as usual. First time having the gray dogwood flop. Hoping it straightens back up.

Sourwood should be alright -- they can sprout from damage pretty well as I saw in the 1994 ice-storm in VA.

Red twig dog woods are usually coppiced here to improve the winter colour. Better red and no flopping.

Must have been quite the storm

James, if sourwood sprouts from around the root collar (or wherever), let it produce leaves for a couple yrs before trying to trim it again to a single trunk.

Worst winds I have seen in my 8 or so years of living here. Lots of big trees down in the area and lots of people woth no power until Monday. I also noticed my Kentucky coffee looked like it was leaning more than usual. Thought I was losing my mind but my wife just told me she couldn’t believe how much it was bent over in the storm. I am nervous of it will recover. The mulch is fractured looking on the side the root ball would have popped up.

The level is at the base. It is level in the picture. That’s how off center the tree is over 4 feet

I’d stake it back up straight

You could James.

When an e4 tornado came through this town, I noticed more than one tilted tree that was pulled back straight using a large ratchet strap. Some larger than your tree.

I saw a few that they left the ratchet strap on while others set stakes and ties to hold the tree until it set its roots again, after a season or two.

Yep, that was one of the strongest thunderstorm lines we've had in a few years. I was outside and heard a gust topple a couple ash snags in the woods next to my house...a reminder of why you should never hang out in the woods during a storm! (especially ones full of dead ash trees!)

Dulles Airport had a 66 mph wind gust https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/06/19/dc-weather-live-updates-strong-storms-heat/

As for your misadventures, welcome to gardening! Ha. They should be fine, sometimes there's nothing you can do about this sort of thing. I do have to be a little difficult and ask - are you sure you haven't been fertilizing these [too much]? They look just a bit floppy and top heavy to me.

No fertilizer on my garden or grass David. Didn’t amended the soil or anything. These were all some of the first plants in my yard so they really started taking off recently

Wasn’t able to move it much but got it a little straighter. Also removed the mulch doughnut and brought the grade down around the tree. Threw a couple stakes in too.

James, those are nice-looking coffeetrees.

Nice upgrade on the mulch circle, James. 😎👍

If you get a ratchet strap I bet you could get them straighter

It's getting enough leverage on the pull that's important.

You need to have a solid base or anchor, to pull the tree towards, something that won't move, like the bottom of a fence post or a solid iron stake driven into the ground at an angle away from the tree.

If you try to drive stakes in and then pull horizontally towards the stakes, you don't have enough leverage, and the stakes will move towards the tree when you pull.

This is a picture of I have handy. The stake is twice as long as what you see sticking out of the ground. It would take hundreds of pounds to move that stake when being pulled on from ground level (never mind the hardscape, it was the spot I needed).

I'm using this stake to hold my honey locust straight. I know it's not exactly what you're doing there James, but the idea is to get something solid, like this stake to pull against, it will take a lot of force to pull your tree straight, using either a ratchet strap or 'come along' ratchet.

You could drive your stake a lot closer to the tree than what I have. This one just has to hold a flexible tree trunk. :-)

Thanks bill! I did ratchet and got some movement but not much. I had to pull towards the fence so not much room for leverage. The pic is deceiving and there really isn’t much space. I am content with the results. I think bringing that soil down will be the biggest benefit.

Thanks bengz. Love these trees ! They are finally starting to take off. They weren’t much smaller when I put them in. They had some big root balls

Yeah, the trees will be fine. Adds character.

Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.

;-)