A year ago, I suspected the rapid decline of the native dogwood (Cornus florida) in the front garden. It had long been subject to cankers and black spotted and mildewed leaves that are typical for the dogwood, but when several branches went bare there was concern that the thirty-some year old tree was finally on its way out.

This spring, the flowering has been its best ever, and emerging leaves are free of the deformities I’ve seen for a decade. I’m sure the recovery is temporary. The native dogwood is plagued by too many potential dooming issues, but I’m happy that the oldtimer hasn’t given up.

My long-established expectation for the flowering schedule of the various dogwoods in the garden has been out of whack this spring. With unusual heat in early spring, the timing has advanced by a week or two for some, but not all. The white-flowered native in the front flowered a week earlier than expected, and in step with dogwoods up the street that usually flower a week earlier.

The vigorous, disease-resistant hybrid dogwoods are next in line. The variegated ‘Celestial Shadow’ (Cornus x ‘Celestial Shadow’) began flowering a few weeks early, while two Venus dogwoods (Cornus x Kn30-8′) are sticking to their scheduled first of May peak.

Several years ago, I happened upon the native Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia, below) on an Appalachian Trail hike. Of course, I had to have one, though finding one took some searching. Unfortunately, one of two purchased, and the one that grew with greater vigor, perished due to excess moisture from a pond’s overflow. The other grows slowly, and this spring it flowers splendidly.

A third Pagoda dogwood, the variegated Golden Shadows (below) started small, but it has quickly grown with open branching. The yellow edged variegated foliage stands out beautifully looking down from the sunroom, and this year it flowers for the first time.

The Asian Kousa dogwoods (Cornus kousa, below) will closely follow the Pagodas this spring. I typically expect their flowering in the third week of May, but flowers might last a week longer with cooler temperatures. There are a number of Kousa varieties in the garden, typical selections (‘National’), variegated (‘Wolf Eyes’ and ‘Samaritan’), weeping (‘Elizabeth Lustgarten’), and a columnar form (‘Snow Tower’). The red flowered Scarlet Fire (Cornus kousa ‘Rutpink’) was damaged by drought last year while its neighbor, the weeping ‘Golden Falls’ redbud Cercis canadensis ‘Golden Falls’) did not suffer at all.

Several dogwoods are new additions and too small to expect blooms. I hope that the evergreen Hong Kong dogwood (Cornus hongkongensis), variegated Wedding Cake dogwood (Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’), and Wilson’s dogwood (Cornus wilsoniana ‘White Jade’) will grow quickly and flower in a few years. A second evergreen dogwood, Empress of China (Cornus elliptica, Elsbry’, below) has lived a difficult few years in the garden, growing vigorously with scattered flowers, then suffering from deer damage and now losing its emerging leaves in the recent freeze.