Grey dogwood

[wsteinhoff]

Curious if anyone has experimented with grey dogwood. They are everywhere here. The purplish fall foliage isn't bad, they seem to get decent bark at a young age, and the white berries on the red stems are nice in winter. Some of the leaves do get pretty ugly in summer and they create tons of suckers though. I've only found one with a trunk I've found worth collecting so far.

 

[CWTurner]

I collected this a couple years ago primarily for the bark, which unfortunately came off along with the moss that was covering it. It was in a grove of interconnected trees in upstate PA.

Here's a pic during last years repot. Not much taper, so I bored out the center to try and create some. It grew good last year. Still buried under leaf much now.

CW

 

[sorce]

Some time ago....

I collected a dogwood in summer and kept it alive indoors for some time before mites did it in.

Pretty tough and you have a nice trunk to build on...

I would pay most attention to how big a branch gets before its center goes hollow, and somehow utilize that information to build nice sustainable branches.

Sorce

 

[JudyB]

That is a nice big trunk Will! I've no experience with these, and we don't have any wild ones here. I will be interested to see how this goes.

 

[M. Frary]

I ran over some dogwoods yesterday.

 

[wsteinhoff]

That is a nice big trunk Will! I've no experience with these, and we don't have any wild ones here. I will be interested to see how this goes.

I do think they have some bonsai potential. Particularly for the winter look of the white berries on red twigs. The bark is great too but unfortunately fragile. I knocked a lot off digging it up. With what I've seen in the woods they have no difficulty healing wounds. The challenge is finding a trunk that isn't thin because they can grow so close together and that has any kind of flare at the base. I don't think there will be any with surface roots found but there's a lot to look through. They make up a large portion of part of the woods around here though and are native so it's worth experimenting with.

 

[Underdog]

I've had my eye on one to layer as its too big to collect.

 

[wsteinhoff]

I've had my eye on one to layer as its too big to collect.

Nothing's too big!

 

[Carol 83]

Nothing's too big!

That's what she said. (just channeling @M. Frary )

 

[wsteinhoff]

That's what she said. (just channeling @M. Frary )

I realized after I posted he'd be replying to it soon. You beat him to it!

 

[wsteinhoff]

Collected 2 more today. Pics tomorrow after I clean the moss off.

 

[M. Frary]

That's what she said. (just channeling @M. Frary )

It's fun ,isn't it?
Or is that what she said?

 

[wsteinhoff]

Haven't gotten all the moss off but here's two more. Going to let it dry out more so maybe less bark comes off with it. I'd like to keep as much of the lichen on as I can too which should be easier when it's dry.

I took this before carving down that big wound some and covering it up. From observing the ones in the woods I expect I'll heal alright. The movement in the trunk doesn't show up well in 2D.

 

[JudyB]

Like the second one with that split crack.

 

[wsteinhoff]

Most of the moss is off and I saved a good bit of lichen thanks to tweezers. Mossed trunks on these are super common. They seem to grow the most in low moist areas. The moss may be a pain but lichens love these trees too and I love the look some lichens give. They add a sense of age to me.

 

[Carol 83]

It's fun ,isn't it?
Or is that what she said?

It is fun, and that is what she says, sometimes..... that's what he always says.

 

[wsteinhoff]

Ok, these three are the last I'm collecting. I figured since I'm trying a tree not used as bonsai and there's so many in the area I might as well experiment with more than just a couple. Plus there's more chance of at least one surviving being dug up. Not that I've lost a tree to collecting yet. Unless I've just jinxed myself in saying that.





This big one is just covered in lichens. And i love lichens. More than just on bonsai. Because of that I left it tall to keep as much of them as possible. I'll carve taper eventually and keep it a tall slender tree.

The base:


And an added bonus I took this itty bitty multiflora rose. It had zero feeder roots but if it doesn't survive it's one less invasive plant.

 

[wsteinhoff]

The first one has buds forming on the trunk!

 

[sikadelic]

That's what she said. (just channeling @M. Frary )

 

[wsteinhoff]

Well the first and last one posted survived. The rest didn't survive collection. The only similarities I can tell between the survivors and ones that didn't are the areas they were from. All the ones that died came from a low, wet, densely overgrown area of the woods while the survivors were higher and drier. The last tree budded out vigorously all over the trunk with a ton of suckers too. The first is much slower to recover but is still alive at least.