Variegated Chinese Dogwood
Cornus kousa 'Wolf Eyes'
(KOR-nus) (KOO-suh)
This tree was featured on this site on September 18, 2006.
The previous post spotlights the real reason to grow this tree; the beautiful foliage. Today’s tree is from a different planting of ‘Wolf Eyes’ than the first post. Both plantings are located in the same garden and there seems to be some variation between the two. These trees get more sun and are growing in a much wetter area. They have been planted for about 7 or 8 years and last year was, by far, the heaviest flowering. The flowers are unusual when presented en masse. They are like a lime green and they persisted for weeks. Quite a nice show. The trees located in the shadier spot have never bloomed in 10 years.
I still love this tree and highly recommend it with a couple of hours of shade per day. There were a lot of the reddish-orange fruits this year. They looked quite nice up against the variegated foliage. I noticed them one day and didn’t have my camera and when I returned three days later to take a picture the birds had eaten all of them.
This is the same flower from a few steps back. The foliage is nicely ruffled.These pictures were taken June 10th at 3:30 pm. Having all this new gear and no flowers hasn't been easy! It has been bitterly cold out with strong gusty winds. Our over night temperature was -1 F. It is warming up nicely today.
4 comments:
I have this cultivar in my garden in pretty much full shade and a dryish location under oak trees. It does very well, even when newly planted last year it survived THE late freeze and subsequent drought. It is a keeper all the way around and I agree with your description of the flowers. I was wondering since your plantings are older than mine, how tall are your trees now? Mine is only about 3 feet tall and has grown probably about 4-6 inches on the 1.5 years it has been here. Thanks.
One of my favorite trees. Mine is still rather small and it grows in almost all shade. It is very dramatic.
The 10 year old tree (mostly shade) is about 9 feet tall with a 7-8 foot spread. It doesn't have a lot of room to spread. The other trees in the garden are about 6 feet tall with an 8-10 foot spread. The 5 of them have knitted together very nicely. It seems this tree is almost semi-dwarf.
Phillip, Happy Holidays and thanks for your support here. I don't blame you for having this tree in shade. It can get a little scorched here in CT in full sun.
tina, thanks for visiting and have a wonderful New Year.
I am so excited as 10 feet is bigger than I thought and with that spread too! Thanks for responding and a very Merry Christmas to you too!
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