5 Gallon
Exposure: Full Sun- Partial Shade
Soil: Wet- Medium Wet
Mature Height: 10 feet
Mature Width: 15 feet
Blooms: May-June
Notable Features: The fruit is white and contrasts nicely with the green foliage. The fall color is maroon for the leaves, but the real color is in the red stems. The stems tend to be the brightest red during the first 3 or 4 years and really show off in winter. The best way to maintain the red stems is to cut them off at the ground in early spring before they leaf out. This dogwood likes wet to wet mesic soils. Great for yards that flood occasionally, grows fast and spreads into a thicket.
Attracts: The nectar and pollen of the flowers attract many kinds of insects, including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, and butterflies. The short-tongued bee, Andrena fragilis, is an oligolectic visitor (specialist pollinator) of dogwood shrubs). Other insects feed on the leaves, suck plant juices, or bore through the wood. These species include the caterpillars of many moths, long-horned beetles (Cerambycidae), leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae), aphids (Aphididae), and plant bugs (Miridae). Because of their higher than average fat content, the white drupes of Red-Osier Dogwood are an important food source of wood ducks, songbirds, and upland gamebirds. The White-Footed Mouse and other small rodents also eat the drupes. The White-Tailed Deer and Cottontail Rabbit browse on the leaves and woody stems.
