The following was received via email: I have a five year old white dogwood tree approx. 10 ft. tall. It has flourishing green leaves but has not flowered in 3 years. It should have beautiful white flat flowers - no buds again this year! Someone told me to "whack" it to wake it up - I did - it's still sleeping! Any suggestions? Thanks, Shirley
Hi Shirley: As in most of the posts regarding why people's Dogwoods are not blooming, there have been little mention of what kind of Dogwood is causing the problem. Is the Dogwood a Cornus florida, Cornus kousa, Cornus nutallii or perhaps even a Cornus controversa, what is the Dogwood? It does matter as some of the forms above take a few years to bloom and some forms can be sporadic bloomers and in some cases non bloomers when they are young, less than 10 years old. Some will not bloom until they are 5-10 years old depending on what the climate the Dogwood is being grown in. Also, it is not unusual for Dogwoods to have lots of blossoms on them when we purchase them and then for a few years the plants will not set flower buds for us. I am not even referring yet to the soil type, the watering practices or even how much and what forms of fertilizers have been used. I've grown all of the forms mentioned above and more for Dogwood so for me to be of help I need to know your growing conditions so I can better analyze what may have gone wrong. I might not be altogether correct in my assessment but I know these plants well enough and I know some of their tendencies. Jim
