Native Plants

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Friday - April 23, 2010

From: Baytown, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Planting, Transplants, Shrubs
Title: Planting dogwood in Baytown TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I live in Baytown Texas and was wondering if this would be a good area to plant a dogwood tree?

ANSWER:

As a matter of fact, there are four members of the Cornus genus, dogwood, that grow in and near the Harris County area on the mid-Texas Gulf Coast. They all require pretty much the same care: acidic soil, part shade or shade, low to medium water use, all will be hardy in your USDA Hardiness Zone of 9a and all are deciduous. Follow each plant link to our webpage on that particular plant to find out more about it. They all bloom somewhere in the neighborhood of March to June. Perhaps you can buy and transplant a flowering plant, if you do it quickly before it gets any hotter. We are not sure if the new plant would hold its flowers or not, but it would certainly survive if it were carefully planted and cared for. Ordinarily, we would prefer that woody plants like shrubs and trees be transplanted in Texas in late Fall or Winter, when the plant is semi-dormant. Don't buy one now to plant then, that would be very high stress on the plant. Always buy fresh nursery stock, check to make sure it is not rootbound, and once out of the nursery, get it into the ground as quickly as possible.

Dogwoods appropriate for Baytown TX:

Cornus drummondii (roughleaf dogwood)

Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)

Cornus foemina (stiff dogwood) - pictures from Vanderbilt University

Cornus racemosa (gray dogwood)

From our Native Plant Image Gallery:

Cornus drummondii

Cornus florida