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| Hello;
I am in Neenah, WI. We planted about 50 Dogwood plants last year. They were between 3 and 4 feet tall. They are growing very well, many around 5 feet tall now. We have them planted around the fenced in area in the backyard, about 35 of them are planted next to each other, about every 3 feet, so all the branches are touching plant to plant. I would like to achieve more of a hedge type of look, primary, I would like it to get much more dense. Once the bush is at the right height (average of 5 feet is good), should I start trimming it off at the top? Will that encourage them to grow into more of a hedge? (become thicker / denser)? Can I trim them any time of the year or should I get them grow for the summer and trim in the fall / early spring next year? The other option I thought of was to plant some smaller dog woods in between these dogwoods. I am not sure if that is necessary though. I can post a photo of the bushes / hedge layout if that would be helpful, please let me know. Thank you very much; Jamie Dolan |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by cearbhaill Zone 6b Eastern KY (My Page) on Thu, May 20, 10 at 18:11
| Which dogwood species did you use? Some are far more suited to this use than others. |
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- Posted by jamiedolan (My Page) on Thu, May 20, 10 at 19:36
| Hello; I think that they are Red Osier Dogwoods. I believe there may be a more specific (scientific) name for the variety I have, unfortunately, I just checked and I cut all the tags off of all the bushes. I can't find one in the bag where I normally save tags for reference. Would a photo help identify them or could you point me towards a reference would would help me figure out which dogwoods I have? I searched online, but did not find anything that helped me identify anything more specific than the Red Osier Dogwoods. Thanks very much, Jamie Dolan |
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- Posted by cearbhaill Zone 6b Eastern KY (My Page) on Fri, May 21, 10 at 9:01
| That is Cornus sericea, syn. stolonifera, Red Twig Dogwood. If it was me I would not wait to trim them. I would remove about a third of the oldest/tallest stems down fairly low each spring- that encourages them to thicken up quite well. Newer stems have the best color, too. They will spread on their own- that alternate name up there "stolonifera" means they spread by stolons, and trimming low to the ground encourages these new shoots. You can of course "shear" them level at the top with hedge clippers if you want, but if you take them down too far they will sometimes struggle to grow and over time you will loose the characteristic red color that made you choose them to begin with. I find that removing about a third of the old wood each year works better, then maybe touching up the tops a bit for form. |
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- Posted by jamiedolan (My Page) on Sat, May 22, 10 at 14:33
| Thank cearbhaill, I'll go out and do the trimming this afternoon as you suggested. Thank You Jamie Dolan |
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