You may remember this roughleaf dogwood, Cornus drummondii, from last spring. I had gotten off to a good start on a broom-form specimen following the initial collecting of it, in 2012, and the subsequent recovery. With a good branch set underway, I had potted the tree in this beautiful Chuck Iker round.
Unfortunately, the tree suffered a bit of a setback last year, possibly from the potting stress, so I went into benign neglect mode with it and did nothing else in 2015. This photo, by the way, was from March of 2015.
Here we are in March of 2016, and the tree is putting on some nice strong growth. I believe, at least at this point, that the setback it suffered last year is behind it. So my thinking today was, why not go ahead and do some shaping so the tree can get back on course?
In about 10 minutes I was able to put a good shape into this very nice little tree. I only cut one small branchlet and pinched one growing tip; otherwise, all of the growth here is going to go untouched well into late spring. This is the way the tree will continue to gain strength.
Am I going to do any more pinching or pruning this year? That depends on how strong the tree turns out to be. I’ll know this in about four to six weeks.
Stay tuned for more on this tree and this species.