Same deal as the others...I've recently moved to Richland, WA (Eastern Washington) and have a young dogwood tree growing in the back yard. I’m not sure when it was planted, but the house was built in 2005 so I can assume that the tree was planted some time since then. My questions are: 1) When should I prune (late dormancy or mid-summer)? I plan on pruning all of my trees in the late winter, but before spring (probably early February). Do dogwoods require much pruning? 2) Is this tree over crowded with limbs? It looks like it needs thinned out to me, but again, I’m new to all of this and am not familiar with the dogwood. Please make recommendations. 3) Should I spread any of the limbs out? Please make recommendations… 5) How old do you think this dogwood is? Should I be concerned about its smaller size? Attached are photo's of the tree. As a reminder - We are zone 7 (although, probably closer to a high 6). My soil is like beach sand when I dig. At the recommendation of the local nursery, I added soil amendments to try to help the tree (cutting out grass around the base) and mixing native soil with compost. I've also staked it to help with our high spring winds, however, will be removing these over the weekend. Thank you in advance for the help.
What flowering dogwoods require in this respect is that they not be pruned very much at all. To get an idea of how all these different new trees you have bought should be handled, look for a good pruning book like Brickell/Joyce, The American Horticultural Society Guide to Pruning & Training or Brown/Kirkham, The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers. When I went to WSU in the 1970s the only flowering dogwood I saw on the campus was planted in an artificial island in the middle of a pool surrounded closely by building walls. This gave me the impression the natural humidity needed to be augmented for these to grow there, and that they also liked or needed some shade and wind protection. Many people use the Sunset Western Garden Book, you can look your climate and your trees up in that to see which parts of Washington the writers think each is able to grow in.
This might be a little to late but after seeing the picture of your dogwood tree I thought it looked a lot like an old one I took a picture of in the spring. This dogwood was planted in the early 1900's and other than one large limb being hacked off one side to accommodate a driveway I don't think it has ever been prunned to a shape.
There are several flowering dogwoods in Manito Park in Spokane as well as cornus mas and C. kousa. Check out the beautiful Japanese Garden while you are there. You wouldn't want to prune a spring flowering tree in the winter.