Several years ago I purchased a kousa satomi dogwood in a one gallon container. Although it appears to be healthy and flowers every year it is extremely slow growing and is now only about 3 feet tall. According to the information I received with the plant it grows to 15 feet in 6-8 years. I am just being impatient or do I need to do something to encourage growth. Thank you Barb Urick
Hi Barb: Is your tree being grown in a container or have you planted it in the ground? Is your Satomi a red or a pink flowered variety? Tell me about your care for this tree such as how you water it and how often and whether you fertilize it and what kind and form of fertilizer you use, how often have you fertilized your tree? The so-called 15 feet tall in 6-8 years applies to trees that have been planted in the ground. From my own first hand experience I have found that these Dogwoods do not achieve 15 feet in the amount of time mentioned. That figure is based on absolute optimal growing conditions with a lot of help from applications of fertilizers during the growing season. I am not sure these plants can achieve that height even when being planted in the ground. Perhaps others can attest that theirs have reached such a height but from I've seen of how the various forms of Satomi grows I would be rather surprised, not necessarily suspicious but surprised as they were slow growers for us. Jim
Cornus kousa 'Satomi' always has pinkish bracts, those with white or reddish bracts would be other cultivars of C. kousa. If truly healthy otherwise yours may be retaining a "memory" of when the scion used to produce your specimen (by grafting it onto a dogwood seedling) was still part of a branch on a stock plant, be growing as a twiggy, flowering branch portion rather than a separate specimen with its own treelike vigor and shape. However, given good care it should fairly soon throw up some stronger, non-flowering shoots and start building itself up.
Just a quick note: Actually Satomi comes in 3 colors, a white with a pink border, red and pink. We got them into the nursery in 1988 and they were marked Satomi Red, Satomi Pink and Satomi White. I realize that many areas of the country have not seen the red and the pink bordered white forms but they do indeed exist. Personally, I like the red form the best of the three. All three forms have been in the nursery trade in very select nurseries in Oregon since 1993. As for a reference, check an old 1993 Greer Gardens catalog and you will see Satomi Red was offered for sale. Harold got his plants from the same world renown Dogwood specialist as we did a few years earlier. Jim
You've grown and flowered all three of these side-by-side, verified that they were distinct, or know someone who has? 'Satomi Red' is frequently used interchangeably with 'Satomi'. A Greer catalog page I am able to get online appears to list only 'Satomi', says it opens white, ages pink, also notes that 'Satomi' can be pink, red or white, depending on climate. All plants I have seen labelled 'Satomi' were pink-bracted.
If you were to go through some of my posts in other forums you might get an inkling as to what specialty nursery I was affiliated with and represented as a Horticultural consultant. If you would like me to go into detail about the 3 forms of Satomi, actually there were 6 forms we brought into the nursery in 1988, including 2 variegates of Satomi, then I suggest you show yourself by registering into the UBC forums. Jim
The Red Satomi exists: <img src="http://www.waysidegardens.com/product_images/49117.jpg"> You can see and purchase a red satomi here: http://www.waysidegardens.com/webap...l=Text Search&SearchText=Satomi&OfferCode=R3H
