March Spotlight: Red Osier Dogwood

Common Name: Red Osier Dogwood. Latin name: Cornus sericea

Other than the red berries of Ilex verticillata (Winterberry) and Ilex opaca (American Holly), there is usually little else in the native winter landscape that stands out with red hues shining through the otherwise less-colorful winter surroundings. The exception is Cornus sericea (Red Osier Dogwood), a multi-stemmed shrub that sports shades of red on young stems that stand out in the winter.

You may ask why I am writing about winter color in March. The reason is that if you want to achieve this bright red color throughout the winter, the time to prune this shrub back is in March. You can prune the stems very close to the ground to encourage new, red shoots to come up because as the stems age, they begin to lose their color and become browner as they mature. Pruning every 2 or 3 years will bring the color of new stems back to the garden.

However, severe pruning does prevent the shrub from growing berries that the birds rely on for food since it prevents new spring buds from flowering and forming berries. If you have an area, perhaps in the back of your garden where dogwoods provide a lush green backdrop for your more showier native plants in the front, I advise leaving them uncut so that the birds can benefit from their berries. But if you have a dogwood in a more prominent spot, a pruning in March every 2-3 years will reward you with beautiful red color all winter long.