Sorry to have to tell you this, but the plant patent for Venus says the flowers last 2-3 weeks depending upon the weather. So they are not long lasting. Also the parentage is described in the patent, along with other good info.

Lastly, one of our local "Lowe's" has one in a 20 gallon pot, that is probable 10 feet tall with a number of very large (5-6 inch)flowers on it. We though about buying it, but bought a Milky Way Kousa instead, as it is very disease resistant like the "Venus", but also bears fruit for the local wildlife, which the Venus dogwood rarely does (according to the patent).

Other items of note from the patent of Venus, are the after 20 years the parent was 18' tall x 20-21' wide, new first year plant can grow over 4' the first year, and the parent NEVER had any winter damage. Venus is also 3/4 Kousa dogwood.

BTW, you can download pdf's of patents (including plant patents) from Google Patents. They can be very useful, and I have a collection of them. :-)

"but the plant patent for Venus says the flowers last 2-3 weeks"
Are Cornus florida trees known to bloom for a longer period? Not if my experience and memory is any indication. I'd say 2-3 weeks is pretty typical for a spring flowering tree. Because they bloom a little earlier C. florida trees have an advantage in terms of the flowers not being exposed to hot weather. In any case, I think my tree was just slow this year because it hasn't really seen any warm sunny weather for a week or so.

I knew about google patents but thanks for noting it.

I bet a tree that large at Lowe's was expensive?

I don't like plants that look excessively hybridized, but I can make an exception for this one...

Lowes and Home Depot here have musical labels on trees, anything found at one tagged as something being looked for should be studied before purchase to make sure it is in fact the desired item. This year I am evens seeing flowering crabapples labeled by color rather than by variety.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ag Products - Rutgers - Venus

davidrt28,
The long lasting is a point of view I suppose. Our local
C. florida last about 2 weeks to occasionally a bit longer in really good years. Kousa's are know to last 4-6 weeks depending on cultivar/tree and conditions. Therefore 2-3 weeks to me is rather short for a tree that is 75% Kousa. Just my point of view. I will say your tree looks great, and would be proud to have it in our yard.

As far as Lowes and HD etc are concerned, yes, be careful, but I have actually gotten so very good unexpected stuff for very good prices from time to time. Just have your eyes open, and brain engaged. :-)

The Venus at the local Lowe's is priced at $149, and every bit of 10' by my estimate, and has a goodly number of 5-6 Venus Dogwood shaped flower/bracks, with the large foilage of Venus. There is NO doubt in my mind, that it is in fact Venus. $149 is not a small sum for a tree, but considering that all the Venus Dogwood I have seen have been ~$70+ for trees that they won't even tell you how large they are, plus still pay for shipping, then it is much easier to accept if that is in fact what you want. Similar sized Venus (actually a bit smaller) in the area are near $200 for B&B trees. I rather have the potted version, and for less $$$ to boot.

2-3 weeks of bloom sounds good to me! Those are gorgeous blooms :)

arktrees, I do see where you were coming from about the C. kousa bloom period. I knew it was longer than C. florida, but I did not realize that 4-6 weeks was typical. You might be correct that it is an unremarkable feature of 'Venus', but would you not agree that the HUGE and most un-kousa like flowers are impressive for a tree that is 75% kousa?

Lowe's and HD can sometimes have interesting finds. My theory of what happens is a wholesaler grows up a lot of a rare variety and they either 1) get to be too big to sell to mail-order specialty nurseries or 2) not enough orders come in from increasingly non-adventurous upscale garden centers, who are having to compete w/big box retailers therefore sell only safe plants therefore ironically the plants end up w/the big box retailer as the wholesaler is trying to get rid of them. For example I found a hebe at an HD last year. I've never seen an east coast garden center (upscale or not) carry a hebe. I bet a PNW wholesaler had a ton of them...(I can't imagine any east coast wholesaler fiddling with hebes, these people are all about the bottom line)...originally intended for sale only in the PNW...and said to HD, "hey, these will grow with only a 50% failure rate on the East Coast, you will probably get a miniscule % of returns because people will forget they've planted something so small, won't you please please just sell them in the mid-Atlantic zn 7 area." As it happens, it is known as one of the toughest hebes and so-far, so-good, seems to be holding up - although I have it in a very specialized well-draining soil situation and I doubt it would do as well in a normal clay soil-based border around here.

davidrt28,
I agree they are extremely impressive. We almost coughed up the $$$, but decided we wanted the berries for the are wild-life. Again, I would be proud to have one in our yard, but Milky Way won the day.

In way of clarification, some Kousa cultivar flowers are reported to last 6 weeks, but I have no first hand knowledge. But most Kousa cultivars state 4 weeks as the norm for flower endurance.

I agree that most of these unexpected finds are due to a grower getting what they can get for over production, and plants a year past intended sale date. BTW our local HD can get some of the worst cases of this I have ever seen. This spring I found a Chinese Pistache that was dated 2002. Poor tree had been in the same pot for 6 years. This and other reasons are why I rarely go to HD.

Interesting reading- I just planted a milky way today after thinking about it for the past 2 years or so...I like the idea of the fruit for winter interest and the birds.
Haven't seen the Venus for sale yet- I agree that Lowe's, Home Depot etc have mixed up tags or generic tags that cover a whole type of plant but not the specific one in hand- that's why I started going online to find out specifics.
I also agree that they probably get left over (too big, rootbound) plants from the grower and figure they will take the risk that someone won't return one within the alotted time.
I just saw 5 blue atlas cedars for sale at a local big retailer- we are zone 5 here- there's no way those will grow!
I bought one anyway and put it next to my house on the south side in my zone 6 pocket and now I am wondering what the heck I am going to do with it if it grows to 40 feet like the ones I've seen online!
Make a gigantic trellis, with special fixtures to mount a theater sized curtaion over it I guess.
Or, just return it dead next year before the end of the guarantee:)