I think there is nothing wrong with the tree, it's just doing what they seem to do. I have 7 dogwoods, 5 Cornus florida and 2 Cornus kousa, and they always seem to bloom heavily every other year, with few or no blooms on the alternate year (which, for me, is this year as well). My kousas in particular, if they have a heavy crop of berries as they did last year, have nothing the next year -- I can't find a single flower bud on either of those trees this year. I'd be interested to see what the responses of other posters are, but personally, I think that dogwoods are just "alternate bearing", to borrow a phrase from the pomology folks. Dennis SE Michigan

Believe it or not, I've seen rows of them here growing in dappled sun locations or areas with high shade and they have bloomed just fine. Mine bloomed last year with what might be considered part sun (~4 - 6 hours). I think some other non-blooming reasons could also be timing of when they were planted and/or sprouted and whether the growing season was conducive for them to get to blooming stage before a frost, including enough water once they get going. We had below normal temperatures most of May last year and mine sat doing little or nothing on top that entire month, only starting to grow around June/July and finally blooming in August. Also I noticed that some offsets might be fairly immature and may not bloom the first year.

Randy, I was wondering how the clean-up was progressing, but hesitated to ask 'cause I didn't want to "bring you down" if it was going too slowly....or getting monotonous or depressing. So, is this storm clean-up now your least favorite gardening chore ever, or can you think of something even worse? (How about digging a lily pond by hand...in clay soil....that's a pretty sad and monotonous task, and my least favorite thing I've ever done in the landscape.) I hope you'll winter sow a few things next week. It is always nice to get a head-start on spring, and it sounds like you could use a little break. I'll be winter-sowing some flowers and herbs next week and also starting my tomato and pepper seeds indoors under lights. I am tired of clouds and cold temps. and NEED some sunshine and blue skies....and warmer temperatures! Dawn

Hi Manur83. Thanks for taking the time to reply. They have been 2 summers without blooms, hopefully this, their 3rd year. I suspect we have been impatient. My wife says they came in small containers and they weren't very big in spring of '15 when they were planted but they grew nicely. Last summer (their 2nd) they were a little taller, nice green leaves, healthy looking but no sign of buds or flowers. Like you say, maybe they were focusing on growth and we've probably been expecting too much. This spring, now, the leaves look very healthy AND we have buds. Making progress :-). Fertilizing...each spring, just as most stuff is starting to come up, we give all plants a healthy dose of bone meal which apparently is very high in phosphorous. But I'm sort of torn whether to fertilize any more. Did go to Endless summer web site and they recommend a high phosphorous fertilizer for "BloomStruck" late spring early summer. We gave them Bone Meal early spring. I don't know whether to give them another shot of fertilizer or not, now or later in the season...or what to give them. I'm thinking, maybe some rose food 18-24-16 in about 3 weeks... High in phosphorous with some iron. But not sure. If you or others have thoughts on this, would like to hear them! We have Annabelle's in 3 locations in our yard, and they do fantastic with nothing but Bone Meal in the Spring and water. The ES plant's card says to "keep soil evenly moist" whatever that means. So keeping an eye on that making sure the soil doesn't get dry. We are hopeful of getting flowers this year, would be nice. Thanks for your comments.