The time to cut these down low is end of winter, it is too late to do it this year. Unless you only cut something like 1/3 of the canes. Even then it should really have been done back in say Feb. or March.

And I wouldn't cut them all the way to the ground. As for hedging them arbitrarily clipped "twig" dogwoods I see in landscaping on commercial properties here often have sections of dead stem marring the winter time visual effect where pruning cuts were made between nodes. And the stems then died back to the next node below the cut.

look like rather large transplants.. that took a lot of stress in the planting stage .. or poor stock to start with.. perhaps root bound ...

you can tell the age of a twig/branch.. by bark color.. and width of course ..

in the first pic.. i see a good amount of new growth ... grayish/greenish ... down low.... this give you an indication of where to cut back.. if and when you do ...

once the roots settle in .. you are going to have a hard time beating these things back ...and if as stressed as i suspect .. next year they might go nuts ...

think of every leaf as a food making machines .. cutting too many off.. to soon.. only slows down establishment ... getting the roots settled.. so they will grow to expectation ...

if your seller/installer.... was a perfunctory as stated ... i dont know what to say ... i would have at least hoped he showed up to look at them ... perhaps he shouldnt be used again ... i dont know.. you really sdidn give us much in this regard ...

and finally .. it often happens.. that smaller plants .. actually get established and growing faster and easy than large transplants.. and in a given 3 to 5 year period.. actually outgrow the instant gratification larger transplants ... just something to think about if you plan more planting ...

ken

Thank you for your comments and your valuable time.

Embothrium I cut back a tiny bit on March. It's been my first year with shrubbing and I had no idea what to expect, or what to look for. I didn't expect them to need much pruning, if at all. Now that it's late spring, I can see more of the bare stems and notice more of the dark grey branches. If I did any clipping I would do it next year now. I was just kind of wondering what I might expect.

I forgot about the nodes! I read something about that last year and it slipped my mind until you mentioned it. I'll have to print something up for my notes (for myself and the Mr who will inherent after I'm gone. )

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 They were large. I read to spend the extra money on larger tree and shrubs if you can, but this is another side of it. I would of been happy to buy the smaller ones, but I will keep it in mind now. The ones on the side of the house that we put in for the hedge are a smaller size, due to running out of money, so maybe that's the bright side of that.

I probably stressed the bigger ones out. We had a lot of snow (and record breaking cold) and rainfall that year. With the leaf spot, I held off on adding more. Obviously they were not pleased.

So, to sum up what I think I understand from the response: This is normal for struggling dogwoods. They have no obvious canker/blight at the moment and I don't need to cut them all the way back to the ground next winter? Once I do prune them, prune at the nodes. Once they feel better, they will most likely need to be aggressively held back.

Sounds like, at least they will fill out more dense. Which means the ones in the back yard should make a decent hedge....but It will be some upkeep work to keep them ....at least a little... in check. Well I wanted to plant things beneficial and hardy. I guess that can be a price to pay for "hardy".

Did I miss or misunderstand anything?

Thanks so much again.

Such suckering-type dogwoods are not long-lived -- the old stems will fade in vigor after some years, just running out of energy. In the wild their suckers will have grown nearby, replacing them. Cutting the old stems back, even down to the ground, serves the same purpose.

On the other hand there are quite large wild examples of Cornus sericea known that have built up persisting trunks near the base. One time I was able to cross a pretty wide stream here in WA by walking on the partly horizontal branches of a C. sericea occidentalis thicket that was growing in it - their lower diameter was sufficient to support my feet all the way across.

The current National Champion is in Oregon:

https://www.americanforests.org/big-trees/western-dogwood-cornus-sericea-ssp-occidentalis-2/

Ok. It's March.

I'm kicking myself for not cutting these back a week ago, but a landscaper friend of the Mr went on a rant saying it was too soon to cut back anything. Then when recapping here I see that I remembered correctly. Sometimes it's hard to know what to believe.

I've read over again that Feb-March really is the time to do (at least dogwoods) so I've made up my mind to do it before the weekend.

Do I understand correctly that all the dark/black needs to go?

Am I right in thinking they look in rough shape? Possibly a fungus?

Frustrating and lost over here. Any help and comments appreciated more then you might know.

I'm kicking myself for not cutting these back a week ago

==>> crikey whats a week in garden time .. either go do it if thats what you want ...

or assign the job to hubby.. and tell him its all on him and his drunken friend ...

first.. spring runs thru summer.. which im pretty sure starts in june ... one week is irrelevant ...

second ... though it flowrs.. its not grown for such ... so timing isnt that big a deal .. if you miss a flowering season..

they are called redtwig.. see the red parts.. that is your healthy parts.. cut off everything else.. thats how easy it is ...

you have been growing a root mass ... now that its had a year or two... you cant cut too much off ... the roots will grow more ... and probably more than you ever want.. btw.. imo.. they are about 2 or 3 feet to close to that wall ... but you didnt ask that.. so ignore it ...

cut down to 3 to 6 inches ... so they plant has a little trunk to sprouts dormant buds ...

also btw.. you dont mention location in your post above.. so its hard to determine when exact timing might be bad ... but imo ... if there isnt 2 feet of snow.. and its march.. close enough.. this isnt heart surgery ...

and .. btw.. you can drive the truck over them and just pull out the broken parts.. and call it a pruning.. you arent going to kill these things.. without trying very hard.. and a little pruning is not trying hard.. so get over that stress ...

and its all the same.. if you had what they call the yellow twig version ... and mostly the same for all shrubs ... besides the flower issue ...

i vote for handing hubby the pruners.. or the truck keys.. and tell him they are his responsibility .. lol.. im lazy that way ... and if he doesnt want said responsibility.. to keep his opinions to himself ... theres an acronym for such ... but im too polite to type it .. lol ...

even better.. just do it. and see if he notices before fall ... lol ..

ken

BTW: i needed to add one more BTW.. so i added this.. and got 2 more in .. lol .. i think i had one more thing to add.. but i lost it in my rant .. lol ...

oh.. look at these pix.. and understand why you will need to become proficient with pruning.. or should move them now

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffnt&q=red+twig+dogwood&iax=images&ia=images

Hello Ken!

Location 5a zone.

." they are about 2 or 3 feet to close to that wall"

They are close in the walls. It's about 3.5 feet depth of space to plant.. Its part of the design that the nursery customized for us. I was also a bit surprised for the size/space, but everything else they designed looks lovely and is doing pretty good so far, so I giving this a chance.

We expected for them to have to be pruned which I thought would be fine since it keeps their branches most fresh.

I guess time will tell how they do. If they end up not right for the space, that happens. I didn't want to sabotage it with poor care. :)

'they are called redtwig.. see the red parts.. that is your healthy parts.. cut off everything else.. thats how easy it is .."

Some of the branches are dark all the way to the ground, into the roots. Other branches, even where it's more red, a lot of the red and dark are intermixed. My worry was it was fungus/canker that was spreading and it might always be an issue if I didn't remove every piece of it.

".. you can drive the truck over them and just pull out the broken parts.. and call it a pruning.. you arent going to kill these things.. without trying very hard.. and a little pruning is not trying hard.. so get over that stress ..."

Haha, thanks!

Hubby will probably be the one doing the physical labor. I might not be able to anymore. Maybe I will just give him the few notes here leave it all up to him. :)

BTW... thank you so much for your time and comments.. :)

It's not "too soon" to be cutting these back, in fact prb'ly the best time (before they begin to grow). I myself would leave the living, bright red stems, but it's up to you.