Roughleaf Dogwood (Cornus drummondii): A Seasonal Look

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I became enamored with Texas native Roughleaf Dogwood, Cornus drummondii, during the time I managed the Green Garden at Austin’s Zilker Botanical Gardens. I knew about “Texas” dogwood, an understory small tree or shrub which blooms in spring and produces white fall fruits, but I had never planted one of my own. Nor did I originally pay attention to the stunning specimen situated in the woodlands plants section of the Green Garden, set back from the formal pathway. I recall the golden leaves which brightened the dogwoods’ limbs, and then the ground below it, during the December after I was hired. But it was in spring that the puffs of creamy dogwood flowers really caught my attention. Snowy floret clusters gracefully adorned the slender limbs of the Zilker dogwood, the little tree set off from a well-worn path to another Zilker garden, nonetheless demanding attention from passersby.

I was smitten.

I mulled purchasing my own little dogwood, but a gardening friend (thanks Deb!) gifted to me a seedling C drummondii from her Westlake garden. I planted my baby dogwood in the center-back section of my back perennial garden. Eager for it to grow up, I waited. And waited. Truthfully, it didn’t do much in the growth department until I removed a tired, old Tacoma stans ‘Esperanza’ that had been, for many years, the main actor in that garden and whose size hampered the growth of the dogwood. Once Tacoma was gone from the garden, the Roughleaf Dogwood grew apace and came into its own. 

I eventually added a second dogwood, purchased from a local nursery, and placed it at the back of the pond. 

A summer vignette from 2019, the two young dogwoods circled. Beloved Nuri the Cat checks out the fish in the pond.
December 2021 with early “autumn” color; the dogwoods have grown.

Since then, I’ve practiced botanical pay-it-forward by digging up and gifting my own dogwood starts to other eager dogwood lovers, plus I’ve planted one more in a different part of the back garden.

Roughleaf Dogwood is deciduous, which means leaves drop after the first freezes of the winter season. Multi-limbed with slim, spidery appendages, the tree can be prune for shape according to human preferences.

As I’m an admirer of nature’s evolutionary practices, I don’t typically prune much on my dogwoods, unless an extremity is nudging up against another plant in a way I find bothersome. Years ago, I’d read that dogwoods had a tendency to colonize out in a garden situation. In its first decade (under the shadow of the T. stans) that was never a problem. But as my first dogwood has matured, there are root-bound outreaches of new trunks.

Some of these I’ve dug up and either gifted or composted, but the ones near the original trunk I’ve let remain. Any that pop up further away from the mother plant I prune back to the soil once or twice each year; newbie trunks are easily spotted in winter. I could dig them out, but they’re a bit too deep-rooted for my back to handle, so it’s a snip-to-the-top-soil for these potentially pesky wannabee trees. If you have a larger space, let them go to grow, bloom, set fruit and be dogwoods. According to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, various songbirds nest in dogwood thickets, so that’s a great reason for allowing thickets to develop–if you have the space. But for those in more restrictive urban plots, some management of dogwood enthusiasm is a must.

In early spring, usually March, the first, verdant leaves appear: tiny, bright green and delicate. Often, the branchlets that held last season’s flowers and fruits are still attached to the awakening tree. 

The spring green leaves make a statement about the longer and warmer days settling in. 

Oak pollen decorates the newly emerged dogwood leaves.

Flower clusters follow, though they take time to develop to the point of offering open blooms for feeding wildlife and admiration by humans. 

The flowers are constantly visited by a wide variety of pollinators. 

I see a multitude of flies and native bees on my flowers. Honeybees and skippers are also frequent sippers of the nectar provided. Sometimes, butterflies rest on the foliage.

The bloom season lasts into May for my two plants. 

Hot summer months see the dogwoods as lush and green, water-wise, and a good place for birds to rest. 

Yellow Warbler, Setophaga petechia, resting in the dogwood after a splash in the pond.

By late August/early September, luscious, creamy fruits are available for both resident and migratory birds.

I’ve mostly witnessed Blue Jays and Northern Mockingbirds at the berries, but they’re sneaky about nibbling while successfully hiding behind branches and clusters of leaves. 

Usually by late fall, no fruits are left on either of my dogwoods; this is when foliage color show commences. Shorter days and a couple of light freezes trigger dogwood foliage color changes, and is always reliably lovely. Typically, the early foliage color are yellows and pastels.

In time and with ongoing cold temperatures, deep burgundy covers many leaves, the dramatic colors remaining until leaf drop.

January and February bring bare dogwoods.

Bare limbs allow for easier bird watching.

Black-crested Titmouse, Baeolophus atricristatus  

Roughleaf Dogwood is native not only in Texas, but throughout a wide swath of the United States and also in Ontario, Canada. I’ve never experienced any disease or insect issues with either of my trees and drainage hasn’t been an issue. Roughleaf Dogwood is a tough plant which remains lush and green throughout our hot, long summers.  It is not deer resistant.

If you have the room in your garden, plant this lovely small tree or shrub. Roughleaf Dogwood is an ideal urban native plant. It’s easy to grow, provides for wildlife and is an attractive plant.

In Spring:

Summer:

Autumn:

Winter:

20 thoughts on “Roughleaf Dogwood (Cornus drummondii): A Seasonal Look”

  1. That’s quite a treatise—and a profusely illustrated one, at that—on roughleaf dogweed. I hadn’t realized the great range of the species, from Texas as far north as Ontario, which implies tolerance for quite a range of climates. The dogwood’s flowers seem pretty similar to those of elderberry.

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    • Lol–lots of photos, I get it! I was really surprised when I saw how widespread this plant is. When I look at the LBJWC, I don’t generally pay much attention to where the plant grows–unless I’m going to profile a plant. I was surprised and pleased–hopefully lots of people in places besides Texas are growing this great plant.

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  2. Sounds like a great plant for the birds, the berries are pretty, too. Plantfinder states it is deer resistant, but you disagree with that assessment? I wonder how it would compete with invasive honeysuckle bush, of which we have a huge quantity.

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    • Yes, the birds are certainly happy with the berries, though I wish they’d pose more for me. 🙂 The flowers are always full of pollinators and a great variety of them as well.

      I generally use the Wildflower Center’s website when I’m learning or writing about native plants. The page on dogwood says it’s not deer resistant, so I’ll go with that. That being said, it may be that in other parts of the country, the dogwood is more deer resistant.

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  5. I thought I knew which plant you were profiling until I got to the photo of the flowers. That’s not at all what I expected. The dogwoods I’ve seen from east Texas are (I just learned) and the flowers are quite different. They do resemble those of the rusty blackhaw I found along the East Navidad river.

    I vaguely remember you mentioning the affection of pollinators for this plant, but now that I see the flowers, it makes sense. There’s a lot of enjoyment to be had there!

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    • I removed the link. Is it just my website or is WP messed up everywhere? I’ve had so much trouble in the last 24 hours with this site.

      Anyhoo, yes, I think the Florida dogwood is one that many people think of as a dogwood, but it’s a different plant. And you’re correct: the Roughleaf Dogwood flowers are similar to Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum (another plant I would love to have in my garden!).

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      • The comment form on your blog just changed format, and I noticed that every email notification of a new post now carries an “unsubscribe” link. Even worse, I had a half-dozen regular readers end up in spam this week. If I hadn’t contacted one, I would have missed it, because I don’t (didn’t!) check spam every couple of days. Clearly, the gurus are messing around again.

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      • It’s really annoying. Hope the gurus get it together soon; this is harder than it should be! Thanks for the heads-up on spam; I don’t seem to have that problem, but I’ll keep a check on it.

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  6. Dogwoods of all species are so gorgeous and I wish more gardeners would include them in their landscaping. I especially thing they would be a good replacement for so many of the smaller lot homes where developers try to cram live oaks into them.

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    • Oh, I couldn’t agree more! There are plenty of gorgeous, smaller trees that would fit so well in the current mode of small houses, crammed together. Sigh. You’re right, builders will put an oak in that some homeowner down the road will have to remove because it’s too big.

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  8. Thank you for sharing so much information and so many pretty pictures about this native shrub, Tina. It looks wonderful in your garden. I just checked the plant’s range map, and it does not occur in Colorado. We have planted some native shrubs here that have similar tendencies as your dogwood and it’s so gratifying to watch them change through the seasons, and especially to see how birds, bees, and butterflies help themselves to their offerings.

    I imagine that you are starting to get excited about the growing season. 🙂

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