Projo Garden Blog

One of the prettiest flowering trees has to be the dogwood.

One of the most famous photographs of flowers has to be Ansel Adams' dogwood flowers in black and white. The picture is probably more admired now than when it was first photographed in 1938. I can just close my eyes and visualize that captured image.

I fell in love with pink dogwoods many years ago. I have one, planted in 1988, in the front, left corner of my property. It has been pruned almost every year to keep it from getting too tall or too wide for the small space by my front window.

When my next-door neighbors lost their huge white dogwood tree from a fungus disease that infected and spread to many dogwood trees in the 1990s, mine was not affected.

As magnolias begin to lose their beauty and lustre, the dogwoods display their characteristic pinkish red buds that get bigger and open up into pink flowers.
Actually what look like petals are not petals, but modified leaves, called bracts. The tiny yellowish-green particles in the center are the blossoms that will produce berries and seed.

Year after year, my children and I have enjoyed the dogwood tree in full bloom. I often cut off some branches and use them for indoor arrangement.

I urge you all to take a walk outside this weekend and take in the sight of the picturesque dogwood at a distance as well as close-up.

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 Tags  dogwood

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