looking to trade for seeds of cornus mass -edible dogwood any cultivar.i would also be interested in most small fruited edible shrubs or trees suitable for container or bonsai growing or inedible fruits or berries with good looks

Yup, I've got a couple of mature ones and a couple more on the way. The fruit ripens here in early to mid August. It's about the size of a small tart cherry, but is more of a football or teardrop shape than round. It has a single, small pit in the middle, which is it's only drawback -- tedious to pit them. The flavor is excellent cooked, IMO -- it tastes like a mix of tart cherry and cranberry. It makes a wonderful cranberry type sauce if cooked the same way. It also makes a very nice jam, syrup, or preserves. I also like to put them in with apples to make pie or crisp. They also can be dried into a product that is virtually indistinguishable in flavor from the "Craisins" sold in the grocery store, although mine are not as soft, since the commercial ones are treated with something (I think vegetable oil and glycerine) to keep them soft. The bush is hardy, attractive, and easy to grow. It is one of the very first things to bloom, actually before the forsythia blooms by a few days. The foliage is somewhat glossy, and it does get a little bit of fall color, although not the most brilliant fall show by any means. The flower buds that form in the late summer add interest in the winter. Mine are too astringent to eat raw unless they are dead ripe and very soft. Birds don't seem to eat them. I think that there may be some named clones that have fruit that is more palatable out of hand. Mine are just from seed -- I started with one, and the rest are it's progeny. I think this is another fruit with a lot of potential. The only down side is the somewhat tedious pit. The method I found to do this easily is to pick over and wash the fruit, then put it in a large kettle with just a little bit of water, and boil/steam for about 10 minutes. This makes the fruit mushy-soft. I then put the fruit into a colander with small holes, and mush the pulp through the holes with the back of a spoon, leaving the pits behind. This yields a pretty large volume of bright burgundy-red pulp and a relatively small volume of pit -- at least they're not virtually all pit or seed like some wild types of true Prunus cherries.

Wow, love2gardennc, I did not know you posted here. GW must be having some issues there. I'm interested in a trade. The Cornus mas seeds that I have are from fruit that I collected myself from very productive plants. The fruit is very tasty and after putting it through the food mill I did make a bunch of goodies from the clean pulp. Now I have a ton of seeds that I cleaned and dried. I do have access to some small seedlings as well that grow beneath the mother trees. Send me an email if you want to connect. Thanks, Little John

convert the common name to the latin thru google ... then add 'annual growth rate' ... and THEN research ... see link ... down a few links it says: When young, kousa dogwoods have a medium growth rate of about 13 to 24 inches per year. Older trees slow down, growing 12 inches or less per year ==>>> the variance is particular to where you live.. e.g pnw 8 month growing season ... MI 5 months .. its going to be much more aggressive in the former ... [if it grows there] no tree ever stops growing ... so dont put much stock on listed mature heights .. its all about how many inches it grows.. per year.. for how many decades ... though obviously.. this is not going to end up.. a 100 foot oak type plant ... one way to get a slower growing version.. is to buy a variegated version.. less green.. less food production .. less annual growth .. generally speaking ... but they may be rather foo foo for your area ... wherever that might be ... and it will probably be double or triple the cost ... ken almost forgot the link.. again: https://www.google.com/search?q=Cornus+mas&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=Cornus+mas+annual+growth+rate