Cornus sericea Silver and GoldYellowtwig dogwood
科:山茱萸科
Family:Cornaceae
属:山茱萸属
common name:Yellowtwig dogwood
introduce:Plant Type: Deciduous shrub
Family: Cornaceae
Missouri Native: No
Native Range: None
Height: 5 to 7 feet
Spread: 6 to 8 feet
Bloom Time: May - June
Bloom Color: White
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium to wet
Maintenance: Medium
General Culture:
Best grown in organically rich, medium to wet soils in full sun to part shade. Tolerant of a wide range of soils, including swampy or boggy conditions. Trim roots with a spade and promptly remove root suckers if colonial spread is undesired. Best yellow stem color occurs on young stems. Although pruning is not required, many gardeners choose to remove 20-25% of the oldest stems in early spring of each year to stimulate growth of new stems which will display the best yellow color. As an alternative to annual pruning, some gardeners prune all stems close to the ground in early spring every 2-3 years to renew. Any loss of flowers through spring pruning is not terribly significant since the small flowers of this dogwood are rather ordinary.
Noteworthy Characteristics:
慡ilver and Gold?is a yellowtwig dogwood cultivar that is primarily grown for its bold variegated foliage and its yellow winter stems. This is a suckering shrub that typically grows to 5-7?tall by 6-8?wide. Ovate to lanceolate, silvery green leaves (2-4?long) are variegated with irregular creamy white margins. Leaves turn yellow in autumn. Stems turn bright yellow in winter and are particularly showy against a snowy backdrop. Tiny white flowers appear in flat-topped clusters (to 2.5?diameter) in late spring, with sparse, intermittent, additional flowering sometimes continuing into summer. Flowers give way to clusters of whitish (sometimes with a bluish tinge) drupes in late summer. Fruit is quite attractive to birds and is generally considered to have as much if not more ornamental interest than the flowers. 慡ilver and Gold?is a sport of C. sericea 慒laviramea?(see C340). Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold Medal winner (1990).
Problems:
Susceptible to leaf and twig blights. Scale, leaf miners and bagworms are occasional insect pests.
Uses:
Excellent massed or as a specimen. Effective in shrub borders where plants can be combined with evergreens or redtwig dogwoods (e.g., see Cornus sericea 慖santi?- C32) for interesting winter contrast. Also effective in naturalistic plantings in moist soils where plants can be allowed to spread and form thickets. Plants perform very well in wet locations such as low spots or along streams or ponds where spreading roots can help combat soil erosion. May also be used as a property line screen.
