Soon after planting in a prominent location along the path to the rear garden, every leaf of the evergreen Empress of China dogwood (Cornus elliptica ‘Elsbry’) was munched by our friendly neighborhood deer. While deer favorite hostas will not replace leaves until the following spring, I expected the dogwood to replace a substantial number of the damaged leaves through late spring and summer. Some were, but few enough that the tree struggled for several years to regain its vigor.

Finally, I gave up and transplanted the tree to an out of the way, mostly shaded spot where I figured it would recover or perish. Happily, the dogwood survived, though it grew tall and thin and never flowered in shade that was too dense.

The side garden changed considerably a year ago when the huge Bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla) fell in a summer storm. The heavily shaded, magnolia dominated side garden was suddenly more open with several hours of midday sunlight. There was plenty of space to add small trees, a Ghost dogwood (Cornus wilsoniana) and a Franklinia (Franklinia alatamaha). And, as I looked to move the Empress of China to a location where it could spread its branches, flower, and be seen, I saw the opportunity to replace a Sky Pencil holly (Ilex crenata ‘Sky Pencil’) that had been beaten and disfigured multiple times by snow and ice.

The evergreen dogwood is now eight or nine feet tall, but the entire root ball was easily dug and carried to its new home. There’s not enough body to the tall and thin tree for it to show up in a photo, but I expect it will be much happier in its new home.