# Silky Dogwood (Cornus amomum)

> Creamy flower clusters in June, porcelain-blue berries in September and purple-red winter stems for wet spots.

Also called swamp dogwood, silky cornel. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/silky-dogwood/

![Silky dogwood (Cornus amomum) thicket at a woodland edge in summer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/silky-dogwood-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: SB_Johnny, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cornus_amomum_form_01.JPG)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 6 to 12 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 8
- Grows wild in: Stream banks, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 27 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC))
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Berries, August to September
- First crop: 4 to 5 years
- Mature spread: 12 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Wildlife value, Tolerates wet soil, Winter interest, Erosion control, Bears young
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Wet Spot Pack.

## Notes

Silky dogwood is the shrub for wet, sunny ground: ditches, pond margins, low corners of the yard. It roots wherever the stems touch soil and feeds dozens of bird species with its blue fruit. On stream banks it is planted beside willows, and after two or three years it keeps the bank from washing out. A bird hedge for the drainage swale, sited where the winter stems show from a window.

## 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.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Cornus amomum](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/cornus-amomum/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Cornus amomum](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=279336)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Cornus amomum](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=coam2)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Cornus amomum](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/COAM2)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Silky dogwood](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/silky-dogwood/)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: silky dogwood, Cornus amomum](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=28)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Cornus chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Cornus.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet: Silky Dogwood, Cornus amomum](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/factsheet/pdf/fs_coam2.pdf)
- [Go Botany (Native Plant Trust): Swida amomum, silky dogwood](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/swida/amomum/)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 12: Cornus amomum](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242416311)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Why reservoirs and drinking watersheds are surrounded by forest, and what the trees do for the water](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/why-reservoirs-are-surrounded-by-forest/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for bees: pollen, nectar, nesting and a bloom calendar from willow to witch hazel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-bees/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- We grow 7 other dogwoods (Cornus): [all of them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/index.html.md?q=cornus)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Winterberry Holly](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/winterberry/index.html.md), [Buttonbush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/buttonbush/index.html.md), [Swamp Azalea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-azalea/index.html.md) and [Sweet Pepperbush (Summersweet)](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sweet-pepperbush/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [River Birch](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/river-birch/index.html.md), [American Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-elm/index.html.md) and [Atlantic White Cedar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/atlantic-white-cedar/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Toughleaf Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/toughleaf-dogwood/index.html.md), [Gray Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/gray-dogwood/index.html.md), [Roughleaf Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/roughleaf-dogwood/index.html.md) and [Red Osier Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/red-osier-dogwood/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Silky Dogwood, add ?species=silky-dogwood with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 4, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=silky-dogwood&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Silky Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=silky-dogwood): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Silky Dogwood as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=silky-dogwood (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Silky Dogwood is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=silky-dogwood (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Silky Dogwood needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 1 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=silky-dogwood:1
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Silky Dogwood where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=silky-dogwood&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Silky Dogwood goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=silky-dogwood&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Silky Dogwood flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=silky-dogwood