Silky Dogwood

Size, growth and what to expect

Silky dogwood makes a multi-stemmed, open, rounded shrub 6 to 12 feet tall and as wide. It grows at a medium pace, and our growth estimator models it at roughly a foot and a half of new height a year on an average site. Branches that touch the ground root where they lie, so an untended plant spreads into a thicket.

Flat clusters of tiny creamy flowers up to 2½ inches across open in May and June, and the quarter-inch fruit turns from white to blue as it ripens in August and September. Songbirds, grouse, quail and turkeys take the fruit, and the leaves feed the caterpillars of the spring and summer azure butterflies. Young stems are greenish purple to dark reddish purple, and the pith inside a twig more than a year old is brown. The name silky comes from the silky hairs on the leaves and twigs.

It grows wild from Newfoundland and Ontario south to Missouri, Mississippi and Florida, on swamp borders and floodplains and along the banks of streams and ponds.

How to grow Silky Dogwood

Silky dogwood grows in full sun or light shade on ground from average to soggy: a ditch, a pond margin, the low corner that stays wet. Each plant spreads nearly as wide as it is tall, so set a hedge 5 feet apart and keep it that far from a foundation.

Plant dormant bare-root or potted shrubs between leaf fall and bud break. Dig a wide, shallow hole, set the crown at the soil line, backfill with what came out, and mulch a ring that does not touch the stems. No stake is needed. Clean the stones from the pulp and sow them outdoors at once, while the weather is still warm, a quarter to half an inch deep. Seedlings come up the next spring. Stones kept until spring need three to four months damp in the refrigerator first.

Water weekly the first summer unless the site stays wet. Deer browse silky dogwood eagerly and rabbits cut stems in winter, so cage new plants for two or three years. Once established, cut a third of the oldest stems to the ground each winter; new shoots carry the best red color.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Stems that touch the soil root down, so the shrub creeps outward; mow or spade the edge to hold it. Fruit ripens in late summer and birds strip it quickly; stems color after leaf drop. Leaf spots show up in wet years but do no lasting harm.