Sanguina - mine are very prone to leaf & twig disease. Once it's established it grows very fast & tall, sends out alot of runners that need to be dug-out & is a maintenance issue for me. If I didn't cut them back 3x/yr they'd be >12'h w/ gray trunks. No critters chew on this one, but I plan to dig them out soon. The amazing stem color is not worth the chemicals & labor. Plus, this type has tiny t-shape hairs on the leaves that stick in your skin & feel like nettles - some people are more sensitive than others - but I need long sleeves to trim this dogwood. Alba & redtwig - Both deer & rabbits, & maybe foxes chew on them. They prefer alba, then move to the redtwig. It was difficult to get a good balanced shape to the shrubs, as the rabbits go for the thin colored stems coming up from the base. In winter the snowdrifts allows them to cut the stems 24" up - in spring they cut at the base. I moved a redtwig to a sheltered but dry spot for the rabbits, & now it's only 3'h, but 5'w due to their goofy pruning, & just noticed it's suffering cuz something dug a nest/hole at it's base & alot of roots are exposed.

Might be making fast growth in shade, thus flopping. Cutting off part of it does not increase screening (as you have discovered). Larger, older native ones in shaded positions here (as well as those in sun, for that matter) often consist of a pile of arching stems with more recent, vertical ones coming off of those. Maybe their wetland habitat tends to result in them being undermined or knocked over by flooding, maybe they just lean over to one side under their own weight. Many other "cane-growers" (C. Turnbull, PlantAmnesty) like species roses, ninebark, forsythia, spiraea and so on show the same basic growth pattern--arching older stems with more vertical, younger ones above and/or in the midst of these. To have mostly upright stems prune out oldest, arching ones occasionally at end of winter. Do not cut over whole thing at once as is often suggested as this many result in a much shorter plant for some years. And do not do anymore pruning until your plant has built up a significantly larger crown, as big as it needs to be to do the job and then some. And if there is a source of shade that it now appears to be leaning away from it will have to be moved out away from this a bit or the source of shade will have to be removed for the dogwood to stop leaning away from it. Redness of stems diminishing in summer is normal.

Hi Finchelover! Redtwig dogwood stems show most color on new growth. I think it's generally recommended to cut the stems to the ground in late winter or early spring to encourage new growth. I cut down 1/3 of the oldest (grey-est, brown-est) growth each year usually in April. Hope that helps. Pat

Inclined to agree although there is a local planting row of Midwinter Fire placed against a longish yew hedge, which is truly spectacular for a good few months...but this is, I think, the classic position to display these daintier dogwoods...whereas most of us do not have space for 20metre formal yew hedges fronted by 3 dozen dogwoods. I have a red-twigged dogwood and rubus thibetana combo (not the insane r.cockburnianus but the more mannerly 'Silver Fern'), set about with black ophiogon and snowdrops, in my (ahem) 'winter' garden (actually, one tiny corner of the allotment)...which I really need to translate to a more epic planting in the wood. The snowdrop and Silver Fern foliage are an almost surreal chalky greeny-blue that I have only seen in leymus magellanicus or certain penstemons.