Cornus sanguinea Midwinter Fire
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See the 'stump' left to the right of the picture. It will be masses of colourful stems next winter.
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Cornus alba, Cornus sanguinea and Cornus stolonifera types are all grown for winter stem colour. Pruning the dogwoods in early spring, gives the shrub plenty of time to generate masses of long straight cane-like stems for stunning colour effect in the following winter months.
Prune the Cornus down to - or near ground level. Prune every stem down to this level - as can be seen in the image above right. This hard pruning of the Dogwood removes all of the stems that we the attraction through the previous winter, but do not worry, for where you have carried out the pruning, many more stems will grow from the stumps left behind. These new young stems will produce brightly coloured stems throughout the following dormant season. If left un pruned, then the Dogwood would lose vigour, and the stem colour would fade year after year.
Hard pruning is the way forward for this, and make sure that you prune early enough in the spring.
