Hi, I have a Red Cherokee dogwood tree that was planted last fall. I'm in northern Delaware and it is in full sun. It was doing great until the leaves started wilting. The first part of the summer was extremely wet. I left home for a couple of weeks and returned to find the leaves wilting. (It rained some during that time, but I'm not sure how much.). Then we went into a dry heat wave for over a week and the leaves have shriveled more. I watered it some, but probably not enough during this time, because my foot was in a cast and I had difficulties getting to my back yard. The weather is fine now, but the leaves are still wilted. I don't see any signs of disease. What can I do to save it?
Check inside original root-ball for dryness, tree may need a good soaking. Also: is it mulched? High temperatures in the root zone will also be likely to distress the top. Especially with woodland understory trees like dogwoods you don't want the root zone (and trunk) to bake in the sun.
The tree is in its first year so it needs frequent watering. Water it well with a spot sprinkler every 3-4 days. Space first two waterings two days only. Make sure that each time the soil gets soaked with not less than 2 ½ cm of water (1 inch). Put a thick layer (up to 10 cm – 4 inches) of organic mulching material around the tree, but be careful to keep the mulch a few cm away from the trunk. The tree should get much better. It looks like it suffers only from the lack of adequate moisture and too much heat at its feet now, but if you will allow this to continue it can get very stressed and prone to all kinds of diseases.
