Yellow Twig Dogwood Shrub for Sale - Buying & Growing Guide

Planting and Care

by Mary Van Keuren | Gardener (30+ Years Experience) – last update on October 20, 2022

Planting instructions

Site your Yellow Twig Dogwood in soil that drains well and receives at least four hours of sunlight a day. Unpot the shrub, and tease out any encircling roots, which can girdle the shrub and slowly kill it. Dig a hole that’s as deep as the root ball and twice as wide. Place the shrub in the hole, spreading out the roots. Holding it upright and steady, fill in around the roots with topsoil, tamping down as you go to eliminate air pockets. Water thoroughly. Apply a two to three-inch layer of organic mulch such as bark chips around the root zone to conserve moisture and hinder weed growth but keep it from touching the trunk to avoid problems with rot.

Watering and nutrients

Your Yellow Twig Dogwood needs about an inch of water a week, either from supplemental watering or rain. In very hot or dry weather, you may want to give it a drink several times a week. Taper off watering when the growing season is finished. Fertilize your dogwood in spring with a balanced, slow-release fertilizer designed for landscape trees and shrubs, such as a 10-10-10 formula.

Pollination

Dogwood shrubs and trees are monoecious, meaning that a single shrub will have both male and female flowers and thus can pollinate itself. The Yellow Twig Dogwood is very attractive to pollinating insects and pollinated flowers yield blueish-white berries that are a good food source for birds and small mammals in the fall and winter months.

Pruning

Monitor your Yellow Twig Dogwood for dead, diseased or damaged limbs and prune these out whenever you see them. You’ll get the best winter stem color by cutting back a portion of the stems each spring to the ground, allowing new growth to take its place. You can cut out about one-fourth to one-third of the old growth at a time without harming the shrub.

Pests and diseases

The Yellow Twig Dogwood is resistant to most pests and diseases. The most common pest seen on these shrubs is the dogwood sawfly, which may eat the leaves. If you catch them early enough, they can be removed by hand at the larval stage. You’re more likely to see diseases such as canker and fungal growths at the southern end of this shrub’s range—in USDA zone seven and above. Keep the area around the bush free of leaf litter and debris and, when planting multiples, be sure to allow enough room for air circulation between them.

Achieving maximum results

Knowing how to best use your Yellow Twig Dogwood in your landscape or garden is one way to achieve maximum results. They are good choices to plant on a stream bank or the shore of a pond because they can handle wet conditions and their wide-ranging roots help control erosion. They are also excellent specimen plants or bedding plants. Consider placing them in a bed alternating with Red Twig Dogwood for a spectacular winter display. They work well in Asian-inspired gardens and are at home in cottage or rustic gardens as well. They are good companion plants to flowering shrubs such as Spilled Wine Weigela and when placed behind grasses that provide winter interest, such as Pink Muhly Grass.

Compare Similar Products