{"id":6031,"date":"2016-04-27T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=6031"},"modified":"2015-10-05T19:36:42","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T23:36:42","slug":"chinese-kousa-dogwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2016\/04\/27\/chinese-kousa-dogwood\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese (Kousa) Dogwood"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mature<\/a>

Mature Kousa dogwood at Longwood Gardens decorated with Christmas lights<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mid-May<\/a>

Mid-May Blooming Kousa dogwood<\/p><\/div>\n

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Chinese dogwood, aka kousa dogwood, (Cornus kousa<\/em>) is a small 25 to 35 foot flowering tree (USDA hardiness zones 5-9). It grows in either\u00a0full or partial sunlight (4-hours sunlight minimum). Depending where you garden, kousa dogwood\u00a0begins blooming from late April\u00a0or in May, almost two weeks after our native flowering dogwood (C. florida<\/em>) has finished flowering.<\/p>\n

Kousa dogwood\u00a0is a tree for all seasons. New leaves\u00a0emerge shortly before the tree flowers. The creamy white, four-pointed bracted flowers expand\u00a0to 4 to\u00a05 inches across. Pink blooming cultivars are a rare find. Aggregate green fruits, similar in shape to\u00a0oversized blackberries (size of a nickel or larger), ripen\u00a0orangey-red in September. Most birds do not relish them, but I’m told that monkeys love them.<\/p>\n

Seedling kousa dogwoods exhibit wide variability in\u00a0form, height, flower traits, leaf markings, and\u00a0autumn leaf coloring. The 2-4 inches long summer leaves are generally dark green and glossy; variegated leaf\u00a0cultivars are available. Leaf margins may be wavy or ruffled. Fall leaf colors varies from dull purple\u00a0to\u00a0crimson red.\u00a0Bark mottling begins\u00a0after 5-7 years\u00a0as thin chips begin to flake off the main trunk and\u00a0main branches. Some mature 50 plus year old trees\u00a0are stunningly beautiful\u00a0in the winter.<\/p>\n

Young Kousa dogwoods often grow shrub-like. You can easily develop a\u00a0tree framework by pruning; eliminate all root suckers and thin out inner branches to stimulate flowering.<\/p>\n

Plant in a well-drained, moist, slightly acidic soil. Fertilized and mulch\u00a0in early spring and irrigated during prolonged drought spells as this dogwood is only moderately drought tolerant.<\/p>\n

Kousa dogwood possesses above average\u00a0disease and pest resistance. Several hybrid dogwood cultivars are\u00a0marketed with kousa as one parent. One novelty hybrid\u00a0cultivar (C. nutalli x kousa<\/em>)\u00a0is\u00a0Venus\u00ae\u00a0which struts\u00a06-7 inch wide white bracts; flower\u00a0numbers are fewer, but are\u00a0enormous in size.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Chinese dogwood, aka kousa dogwood, (Cornus kousa) is a small 25 to 35 foot flowering tree (USDA hardiness zones 5-9). It grows in either\u00a0full or partial sunlight (4-hours sunlight minimum). Depending where you garden, kousa dogwood\u00a0begins blooming from late April\u00a0or in May, almost two weeks after our native […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,657,440,674,844,806,1144,665,10,551,843,1059,951,601,630,705,646,7,113,850,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6031"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8122,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6031\/revisions\/8122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}