Red Dogwood - Cornus alba Elegantissima
A wonderfully easy plant to maintain with a swift growth rate, Cornus alba Elegantissima is a dogwood with variegated foliage. Its leaves have a jagged, creamy margin and an olive green centre. It produces small white flowers in May and June, which are followed by white fruit that sometimes have a hint of pale blue. Neither of these are very showy, however, and most gardeners grow dogwoods for another reason. Like other varieties of Cornus alba, Elegantissima's great appeal is the glistening red bark of its new stems, which can transform a frozen winter landscape, especially when planted en masse. Dogwoods love moisture and are perfect plants to go on a river bank, in marshy areas or a bog garden. Cornus alba Elegantissima won the RHS Award of Garden merit in 2002.
Pruning Cornus alba Elegantissima
- Ornamental Use: Read about hard pruning (coppicing) Dogwood.
- Hedges: If you are planting Elegantissima as part of a hedge, prune them hard at the time of planting and then trim them normally with the rest of the hedge.
Planting Cornus alba Elegantissima
Dogwoods aren't fussy about soil and while they prefer full sun, they will still grow vigorously as long as they get half a day of good light. Although they come from marshy areas that would drown the roots of most other large plants, dogwoods are flexible and will succeed just about anywhere, even in dry soils. If the quality of your soil is especially poor and dry, take the time to improve it before planting with lots of well rotted compost or manure. In the unlikely event that your Dogwood looks unwell, feed it a quick release fertiliser each year, just before you apply the mulch.
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Delivery: The basic delivery charge for orders of bareroot plants is £9.49 + vat, which increases to £12.55 + vat if you add any pot-grown plants, standard trees or fruit trees to the order.
Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
You can choose the delivery week that suits you during checkout and we will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.
Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.
Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.
Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted hedging must be watered in dry weather while it is establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week if there is no heavy rain.
Our nursery has been supplying container grown and bareroot hedging plants to gardeners, farmers and town planners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying hedging plants online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.
