ABC Wednesday - Y is for Yellowtwig Dogwood

Yellowtwig Dogwood
Cornus sericea 'Flaviramea'
(KOR-nus) (ser-IK-ee-uh)
Synonyms: Yellowstem Dogwood, Golden Twig Dogwood

If you are here for Wordless Wednesday please scroll down to the next post.

When I took these pictures about a month ago I thought that it would be a good ‘Y’ post. Yellowtwig Dogwood is a favorite winter plant of mine. I love to see it in masses and I often plant it with Redtwig Dogwood. It looks good in leaf and the summer flowers give way to white berries but the real show is the winter color of the twigs. They do take a little bit of managing as only the younger twigs show the best color so you have to remember to prune them during the spring. They can also get quite large if left to their own devices. I have seen them up to 10 feet tall and like to keep mine at about 6 feet.


Yellowtwig is hardy done to -45.5 °C (-50 °F)! It also tolerates moist and even wet conditions. It is not fussy as to soil and propagation is easily done by layering some of the sucker branches (you can do it by cuttings, also). It is a nice plant and can be used singly in the small garden but as I said I much prefer it in large masses. There is one cultivar that I am familiar with its called ‘Budd’s Yellow’ and does seem to be a little brighter and heavier branched than the species. There is also a slower, smaller growing variegated cultivar, which I think is called ‘Silver and Gold’.

Here is a link to Wikipedia with everything you want to know about Yellow .


One thing I learned is that yellow’s complimentary color is indigo. It has taken awhile but I have really begun to love yellow in the garden, both with flowers and foliage. A quick search for ‘yellow’ in image titles on my hard drives yielded 339 items. Many have been posted on this blog before but here is a real yellow Plumeria flower that I took on the quiet end of Duval Street in Key West, Florida.


Another bright yellow flower from the archives. This is Witch Hazel (Hamamelis x intermedia 'Arnold Promise') and it often blooms in late January or early February here in Connecticut. The flowers are very fragrant and come in a couple of different colors. Witch Hazel can turn into a large shrub and is nice planted with several together.


Here is the ABC Wednesday Blogroll:

mrs nesbitts place
hin's photoblog
tech the man
a bit of this a dash of that
Little Rock Daily Photo
photoxication
Kissing the Dogwood
strolling through Georgia
Ruth's Garden Blog
kate isis
photography by kml
AVCR8TEUR'S Blog
Salty Dogs
The Modern Goddess
Simply Sage
author blog
kai
Mollitudes
ten forty
Neva
Ackworth born, gone West
Secluded Habitat
katch photo
Mr. Mapper
The Max Files
Oswegan
Watch me, No Watch me
Peter Miller
Lynette
Andrea’s Thought of the Day
Photowannabe
RuneE’s Visual Norway
Happy One
Jim Baker Photography
Azure
HPY
cre8tiva
imac from the mind’s eye
NYCindividual
Lilli and Nevada
Bonnie
Outhouse of Canada