The builder at our last house used them in front of every house in the neighborhood, and they grew like weeds if in full sun. I would prune them to about 18" in the spring, and by mid summer, they were close to 6'. I had to prune them again, or they would block the view out our front window. The neighbors across the street only had to prune theirs once a year, but their house faced north, so they were in the shade.

Thanks for the responses. I believe mine are the 'standard' kind, so are probably likely to grow to full size - they will be in full full sun.

So.....for clarification - i can hard prune them back and that will keep them smaller?
And I can prune them or....sort of hedge them down - to keep them at the height I want? (about 5') without hurting them or worrking about them too much.
Thanks,
Mary

I've never seen red-twigged dogwood reach 10' tall.

I've had some for 4 years or so ... and they hit 4' this year.

I would guess that I'd have to wait another 6 years for them to reach 10' tall.

They tend to grow wide as well as tall.

And you can trim them to the size you want ... in fact, that the standard advice to make them grow thicker, ... enhancing the red branch color.

My red twig dogwood was planted on the north side of my house--mostly in shade--in summer of 2004. I cut it back to about 6 inches in spring of 2005 and 2006. Each summer it has grown to about 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I heard recently that these dogwoods have small flowers and small clusters of blue fruits. Mine have not bloomed or fruited. Do I just have a different variety, or does pruning them back make it unlikely they will bloom? Or maybe they need more sun? The shrub looks great and the stems are bright red during the winter.

Ok, sound like I can use these and just plan on cutting them down a couple times of year if/when they get too tall.
Debout - your comments are distressing. Some people are no doubt wondering why I just don't get an approprite sized shrub - well one of the main reasons is I'm trying to stick to shrubs that have fruit/flowers for birds and wildlife. So....anyone else have problems with fruiting? Mine will be in full sun, hope that is it.
Mary

I have two sorts, Baileys, which will grow about 8 feet tall,if ignored, and a dwarf form I would not recommend because it's stems are dark mahogany red in Winter. But there are dwarfs that get to be less than 4 feet tall with better color. Forest Farm lists a few. Baileys has magnificent color to the stems. I plan to cut 1/3 out each year, so there is always a supply of newer, brighter stems. You probably are not troubled by deer. They will not leave my little Bailey cuttings alone. Bloom on many shrubs is proportional to the amount of sun they get.

Oh, I think mine could easily reach 10' tall. It is quite vigorous. I remove 1/3 old wood each spring and then shape to control size. I see some around here where people just lop off the top and it doesn't look as good - looses it's natural shape. I ran out of time this spring and didn't prune mine this year and they are quite out of control.

Flowering and fruiting on twig dogwoods is unlikley to occur if severely pruned each season. If you want to maintain these qualities, then go the removing 1/3 of old stems route instead.

So they won't look so great if I treat them like a hedge and just trim the tops and take out some of the inner wood - but will I still get some flowers and fruit?
Or do I just need to give up?

Marys1000'

The key to keeping your Red-Twigged Dogwoods looking good, ... is to be sure to prune out the dead and older branching (which will look more brown than red).

Your pruning of them will not affect their look ... as you can prune them to whatever shape you prefer ... natural or not.

As to blooming and fruiting ... I'm not to sure bout that, as 've never trimmed my plants yet, ... and I always get fruit.

Mine definitely bloomed and produced fruit in spite of all the hard pruning. Seriously, they grew like a weed!

I don't know if anyone else had this experience, but if I didn't wear gloves and long sleeves when pruning, my arms would break out in hives, itched like crazy until I washed off.

Yes, as some of us have stated above, removing 1/3 growth each spring is the best option regarding controling growth. Opens up the centers and encourages healthy new growth - keeps blank dead spots from being created. Also, the newer growth is brighter red so will help accentuate the red twigs. I have found you can actually be a bit more aggressive about this as well. I think the important thing is that most of the cutting is done at the ground. Regarding flowers, I don't think they are very noticable - I wouldn't really see mine unless I actually walked by them. I'll have to check if mine have fruit or not.

Mary and debout - based on my microcosm of a situation (my Redosier or C. sericea redtwig is containered), I would say that sun might be a strong factor for blooms. Mine is 3 years old in a container and it is running branches that are just under 4ft in length (the plant was originally a 12" bareroot in a box from the now-defunct Frank's Nursery), and this year it bloomed for the first time - albeit a little late as far as I can tell. The branches that bloomed were those (hold on and don't get queasy... LOL) that were hanging out over the edge of my balcony in the sun. At that spot, shooting way out, those branches could get sun in summer from sunrise at ~5:30 am to ~1 pm (NE-facing spot, nothing blocking the sun being this is a hi-rise).

{{gwi:276243}}

The branches in the back that are under the "canopy" of my balcony cover didn't bloom. The blooms then gave me a single white berry by August, although I did see a bunch of insects on them, although I guess not enough to get the flowers fully pollenated:

{{gwi:276247}}

I don't mind at this point because to see it finally bloom after being a baby was exciting enough. I think the one issue for growing in full sun is to make sure that it gets plenty of water as this sucked down some water, even in a part sun spot!!

I also have a variegated one (C. alba 'Elegantissima') that is about 1 1/2 years old and there is someone in my neighborhood who has a large variegated one that has to be at least 6ft tall, which was surprising to me because I usually see them kept to under 5ft with pruning. Theirs is in a pretty shady spot though, but the leaves did brighten the area rather dramatically.

We have them pretty big out here. I've walked on trunks of redtwig dogwood growing over an outlet from a small lake, that held me perhaps yards above the stream below.

"All around the northern latitudes grow various shrubby REDTWIG DOGWOODS...Our local manifestation [Cornus sericea (C. stolonifera) ssp. occidentalis]...can be a large, coarse, sprawling shrub or small, slender, unwieldy tree...The tallest specimens are nearly 30', and the stoutest trunks ca. 7" thick. It sends up root suckers and its stems lay down and take root, forming huge patches, spreading widely as if by tentacles" -- Jacobson, WILD PLANTS OF GREATER SEATTLE

Along with native C. stolonifera, C. alba cultivars are planted in North America.

"A multistemmed suckering shrub 6-10 feet (1.8-3 m) tall and 5-8 feet (1.5-2.4 m) wide, this species tends to be quite upright in branching in youth, with older plants showing some arching tendencies. It differs from the very popular C. stolonifera in growth habit in that C. alba does not spread by suckers to form large broad colonies as does C. stolonifera. In addition, C. stolonifera tops out as a mass 4-6 feet (1.2-1.8 m) tall with lax, drooping branches" -- Cappiello/Shadow, DOGWOODS

I have not had any plants or shrubs that I pruned. So I'm not sure Silvergold how taking out the inner older wood 'contains growth' other than how wide it gets perhaps? Or how thick it gets. Personally I am most concerned with height and taking out 1/3 doesn't seem like it would have any effect on that at all.
I looked up Bailey's which seems to be what I have out in the driveway waiting for ahome and one of the more common forms and the tag does say 10' and internet says stolinifera - BBoy - is there some conflicting info in your very interesting quotes? The top pp - makes native stolinifera sound huge while the last sentence of the second pp says tops out a 6'. Am I reading this wrong? I have no experience with the latin names etc. Sorry.
Good discussion here. Learning a lot.

My red osier dogwoods are about 7 years old and 7 feet high this year (zone 5/6). I prune 1/3 of the old canes every november - it serves to promote the red twig colour and I get lots of lovly red twigs for decorating inside and outside at Christmas time and through the winter!

Thanks for the great info, everyone. Especially appreciate the photos. I suspect my red twigs may not be getting enough sun to produce blooms or fruit. But I'll try pruning just a third of the twigs for a few years to see what happens. Either way it's a pretty shrub.

Actually - removing 1/3 growth does control size. Think abuot it this way - you are removing 1/3 of the shrub each year. Mine are actually C. alba 'Elegantissima' so are variegated. (as an fyi, I have a yellow twig cornus servicea 'silver and gold' that I treat the same way).

Here is a helpful link regarding pruning dogwoods (i.e. cane growing shrubs) that explains the method.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pruning guidelines

Silvergold - great info. Thanks for the link!

I am so impressed with everyone's messages regarding the red twig...I called my local nursery today and found that they had about 6 plants from their 2007 stock that they are anxious to clear out...so the discount is somewhere in the neighborhood of 70%!...I am so excited...can't wait to pick them up Saturday, 4/19/08...not quite sure when Vermont will be ready to plant!.and I'm sure they will need some TLC...nor do I know at this point what variety of Red Twig they are...not worried....I am anxious to get them planted and on their way hopefully to about 5 or even 6 feet!....and to the Jen....with the beautiful pix from her high rise!...gorgeous.!...you all seem to know so much about them...I'm a mere novice, but they will serve my needs perfectly....I only have to hope the deer will NOT want to eat them!....This past winter was difficult for them to find food...I found my beautiful Maiden Grass which is about 6-7 feet tall, which will be cut back in a week of so and then moved to a safer place, has served as someone's winter bed this year!....only 50 feet from the back door!...I'll let you know what I end up with when I make my purchase on Saturday...supposedly they are about 4 ft...probably 3 and then the pot!...happy planting and thanks for so much info...

Regarding deer, they absolutely love eating the new growth in the fall. We have several r-t dogwood in our mountain retreat in Idaho, we have come to call that area 'the salad bar'.
On the positive side, the plants are self-pruning. They grow 18" and the deer eat 6". Makes for a growing and very bushy shrub.
Trond