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Writer's pictureKimberly Simmen

Native Plant of the Week: Gray Dogwood

Family: Cornaceae


Name: Cornus racemosa - Gray Dogwood


Bloom Time: May - June


Flower: White


Soil Condition: Average, Moist, Wet


Light: Sun, Partial Shade


Height: 10-15' tall by 10-15' wide


Native Range: Eastern North America including Long Island


Zone: 4 to 8


Cornus racemosa is a great wildlife shrub that forms a thicket if left to naturalize. The flowers in the spring are great for native pollinators. White berries on showy red stems appear in the summer and are quickly gobbled up by small mammals. Fall color is purple, pink, yellow and green.

Maintenance: If necessary, remove root suckers to control spread


Benefits: Host plant to Spring Azure, Summer Azure and Gray Hairstreak butterflies, deer resistant, birds and mammals eat the berries, clay tolerant


Companion Plants: Symphyotrichum cordifolium - Blue Wood Aster, Polystichum acrostichoides - Christmas Fern, Geum fragarioides - Barren Strawberry, Eurybia macrophylla - Big Leaf Aster, Solidago caesia - Bluestem Goldenrod


pics: KMS Native Plants

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