Common dogwood: when and how to prune

Common dogwood: when to prune it?

JFMAMJJASOND

Prune in late February–March, while the shrub is still bare. That way you have enjoyed the red stems all winter, and it sprouts again straight away in spring.

Ideally finish before mid-March, when the nesting season starts: blackbirds, dunnocks and whitethroats like to nest in a dense dogwood. If you prune later, check the shrub for nests first.

Don’t prune in autumn or early winter: you would cut off the very stems that give colour all winter, and the berries that birds are still eating.

What else to prune in those months? February · March

Common dogwood: how to prune it?

1. Recognise the old wood: older stems are thicker, greyish-brown and much branched, and lose their red colour. Young stems are straight, smooth and red on the sunny side.
2. Every year, saw a third of the oldest stems off as low as possible. New shoots then come up from the base, and no stem is older than three years.
3. A shrub that is too big or bare can be cut right back to 10–20 cm above the ground: it regrows vigorously, and the new stems have the brightest colour.
4. If winter colour is what you are after, cut the whole shrub back every two or three years in March. Varieties such as ‘Midwinter Fire’, with orange-yellow stems and red tips, are planted for exactly that.
5. At the same time, dig out suckers growing where they shouldn’t. With a piece of root attached, they make a new shrub for elsewhere in the garden.
6. In a mixed hedge or hedgerow, only cut what is in the way, and coppice the dogwoods in turn rather than all in the same year.

How much to cut, and how often?

• About a third of the stems every year, the oldest: the shrub renews itself completely every three years and stays full of red stems.
• Or cut everything back to just above the ground every two or three years, if winter colour is what you want most. Expect fewer flowers that summer, and fewer berries in autumn.
• Dig out suckers that spread too far every year: otherwise it will eventually take over a whole corner.

What does it mean for wildlife?

• Pruning in late February and early March falls outside the nesting season (15 March–15 August). If you are still at it in the second half of March, look carefully first, as disturbing an active nest is against the law.
• In June the flat heads of white flowers are busy with hoverflies, beetles, bees and butterflies. Cutting everything back every year means fewer flowers: in a large shrub, leave some of the older wood.
• In late summer and autumn, thrushes, blackbirds, robins and blackcaps eat the bluish-black berries. They are not edible for people.
• A dense dogwood thicket still offers small birds shelter in winter. Put the prunings on a dead hedge: a refuge for hedgehogs, wrens and insects.

Common mistakes

• Never taking out old wood, so the shrub turns grey, goes bare at the base and loses its red winter colour.
• Pruning in autumn, so the red stems are gone before winter even starts.
• Cutting all the stems back to the same height, so you get a broom of thin shoots instead of new stems from the base.
• Letting the suckers spread for years, until the shrub takes over a whole corner of the garden.
• Still pruning hard after mid-March without checking for nests first.

Nearby: related pruning guides

• Red-barked dogwood
• Cornelian cherry
• Guelder rose
• Hazel
• Elder

Similar to: Difference from white dogwood · Difference from cornelian cherry · Difference from alder buckthorn · Difference from spindle

Plant profile: Common dogwood · Pruning calendar and basic rules