{"id":6044,"date":"2019-04-10T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=6044"},"modified":"2018-09-11T13:18:02","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T17:18:02","slug":"select-list-of-kousa-dogwood-varieties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2019\/04\/10\/select-list-of-kousa-dogwood-varieties\/","title":{"rendered":"Select List Of The Better Kousa Dogwood Varieties"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cornus<\/a>

Cornus kousa ‘Wolfeyes’ at UT Arboretum, Oak Ridge, TN<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

C. kousa ‘Lustgarten Weeping’ at Rutgers University, NJ<\/p><\/div>\n

There are over 100 named varieties (cultivars)\u00a0 of kousa (Chinese) dogwoods (Cornus kousa<\/em>) in nursery trade (USDA hardiness zone 5-8). Most cultivars grow 20-30 feet high with some exceptions.\u00a0Kousa dogwood blooms 2-3 weeks after U.S. native flowering dogwood (C. florida<\/em>). Most grow shrub-like and tree forms require extensive training at the nursery.<\/p>\n

Flowers are 2-4 inches wide with either white or pink tapered bracts. Flowers appear\u00a0after the leaves emerge. Fleshy pinkish-red to red fruits ripen in late summer.\u00a0\u00a0Flowers and foliage\u00a0are highly resistant to anthracnose disease and deer\u00a0tend to stay away.<\/p>\n

Several cultivars are very new and others are not well known. Dogwood researchers, such as at the University of Tennessee, continue to evaluate the best cultivars for the Southeastern U.S.\u00a0Key characteristics they\u00a0search for include drought tolerance, heat resistance and better tree forms.<\/p>\n

Some cultivars that show great promise include:<\/p>\n

\u2018Blue Shadow\u2019<\/strong>– exceptional dark green foliage; blooms at an early age.<\/p>\n

‘Gold Cup’<\/strong> – dark green foliage marked with a prominent golden yellow streak in the leaf center and small white blooms<\/p>\n

\u2018Gold Star\u2019<\/strong> – slow growing tree; green leaves with butter-yellow center blotch.<\/p>\n

Heart Throb\u00ae\u00a0<\/strong> (\u2019Schmred’)\u00a0 – red-colored bracts do not fade out in\u00a0southeast U.S.\u00a0heat as do many red flowering varieties.<\/p>\n

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Fruits of C. kousa<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Lustgarten Weeping\u2019<\/strong> – strong weeping form but is reportedly disease prone.<\/p>\n

‘Milky Way\u2019<\/strong> – popular \u201cgeneric\u201d variety that flowers early and prolifically; flowering tends to be biennial,\u00a0heavy one year and light the next.<\/p>\n

\u2018National\u2019<\/strong> – vigorous, vase-shaped tree and dark green foliage<\/p>\n

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‘Scarlet Fire’ Kousa dogwood<\/p><\/div>\n

Scarlet Fire\u00ae\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0-new! 2018 introduction from Rutgers University with fade-proof red (dark pink) bracts.<\/p>\n

\u2018Summer Stars\u2019<\/strong> – heavy-blooming; good drought tolerance.<\/p>\n

\u2018Wolf Eyes\u2019<\/strong> – slow growing compact (10-12 feet) shrub form; creamy white variegated foliage is scorch-resistant; small white flowers fade into foliage.<\/p>\n

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There are over 100 named varieties (cultivars)\u00a0 of kousa (Chinese) dogwoods (Cornus kousa) in nursery trade (USDA hardiness zone 5-8). Most cultivars grow 20-30 feet high with some exceptions.\u00a0Kousa dogwood blooms 2-3 weeks after U.S. native flowering dogwood (C. florida). Most grow shrub-like and tree forms require extensive training at the nursery. Flowers are 2-4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,657,1319,669,645,844,774,853,551,791,843,951,601,729,777,630,705,646,7,850],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6044"}],"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=6044"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10954,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6044\/revisions\/10954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}