Photo: John Knouse, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Roughleaf Dogwood

Cornus drummondii

Also called rough-leaved dogwood, Drummond's dogwood, small-flower dogwood, white cornel, Cornus priceae.

A fast thicket dogwood for dry or wet ground, with creamy flowers in late spring and white berries that dozens of kinds of birds eat.

Wildlife valueDrought tolerantTolerates wet soilHedge or screenFall colorTolerates shadeErosion control

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 6–15 ft
USDA zones: 5–8
Growth rate: Fast
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Dry uplands, rocky ground, stream banks, floodplain forests, old fields and edges
Native range: 21 states, north to Wisconsin, south to Louisiana and west to South Dakota
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Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin
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Roughleaf dogwood is a thicket-forming shrub or small tree of the Midwest and the southern plains. It is named for its leaves, rough to the touch above and woolly beneath, and it is often mistaken for our gray dogwood. It tolerates drier ground than Missouri's other native dogwoods, and it withstands drought and extreme cold. Its thickets give birds cover and nesting sites, and its roots help hold a bank against erosion. New York lists it as endangered, at the northeastern edge of its range. It can be hard to find in nurseries. Plant it as a windbreak, a screen along a property line or a bird thicket at the back of the lot.

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows fast, and our growth estimator models it at nearly three feet a year. It makes a shrub 6 to 15 feet tall and as wide. As a small tree it can reach 20 to 25 feet. Seedlings bear their first fruit at 2 to 6 years.

Flat clusters of creamy white flowers, 2 to 4 inches across, open in May and June. The white berries, a quarter inch across, ripen from August to October on red stalks. Dozens of kinds of birds eat them, from bobwhite and wild turkey to wood ducks and songbirds. The leaves turn purplish red in fall.

It grows wild from Ontario and South Dakota south to eastern Texas and east to Georgia. Its home is dry, rocky woods, glades, thickets, old fields and prairies, and sometimes low, wet ground by streams.

How to grow Roughleaf Dogwood

Roughleaf dogwood grows in full sun or part shade, and it takes shade. It takes clay, sand, rocky or limestone soil. It grows on dry ground and on wet sites that flood at times. Plant it 8 feet from a wall, and set plants 6 feet apart for a screen. Keep it 15 feet from overhead wires, since as a small tree it can pass 20 feet.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch ring clear of the stems. Clean the pulp off the stones and sow them outdoors in fall, a quarter to half an inch deep, under hardware cloth. Some seedlings come up the next spring and the rest the spring after. Stored stones need 30 to 60 days warm and damp, then 30 to 60 days in the refrigerator, before a spring sowing.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. Deer browse the leaves and twigs, so cage young plants for two winters. It needs little pruning. For a single-trunked tree, mow or pull the extra shoots.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. It spreads by underground stems into a colony, and it is hard to manage in prairies. Leaf spots, twig blight, cankers and scale insects turn up at times, but no serious pest troubles it.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (12)