White Flowering Dogwood Tree Seeds | (Cornus florida)

The tree that announces spring. The most beloved flowering native tree in the South.

Cornus florida, the White Flowering Dogwood, is the defining spring flowering tree of eastern North America, its four white bracts opening flat and wide at eye level before the leaves emerge, creating a horizontal layered display that is unlike any other tree in the forest. It grows as a natural understory tree beneath the canopy of larger hardwoods, which means it thrives in the filtered light conditions that challenge other flowering trees. In fall its foliage turns deep burgundy-red and its glossy red berries provide wildlife food into winter. If you are looking to buy Dogwood seeds or grow flowering dogwood from seed, this is the native tree that transforms a yard into something that stops people in their tracks every April.

• Four white bracts opening flat and wide in early spring before leaves emerge, creating a layered horizontal display
• Native understory tree that thrives in partial shade beneath existing canopy
• Deep burgundy-red fall foliage and persistent glossy red berries through fall and winter
• Host plant for Spring Azure butterfly and several native moth species
• One of the most widely loved native flowering trees in North American horticulture

Things you probably did not know about the White Flowering Dogwood

The white petals are not petals at all.
What appears to be the four white flowers of a Dogwood bloom are actually modified leaves called bracts. The actual flowers are the tiny cluster of yellow-green structures at the center of each bract arrangement. The bracts evolved not to attract pollinators directly but to make the small central flowers visible to insects from a distance.

The berries are eaten by over 36 bird species.
Dogwood berries ripen in fall and are consumed by a wide range of migratory birds including robins, thrushes, bluebirds, and wood thrushes, which fuel up on the fat-rich berries before and during migration. Studies of migratory bird diet have consistently ranked Dogwood among the most important native fruit-producing trees for fall migration along the Atlantic flyway.

The wood is the hardest of any common North American tree.
Dogwood wood has a Janka hardness of 2,150, harder than hickory, and was historically used for applications requiring extreme hardness in a small piece. Weaver's shuttles, wooden mallets, tool handles, and golf club heads were made from Dogwood. The wood is so hard it was called the pegwood in the 19th century because it was used for the pegs in wooden machinery.

It has been under stress for decades and is making a comeback.
Dogwood anthracnose, a fungal disease that arrived in the 1970s and spread rapidly, killed millions of native Dogwoods across the Appalachians through the 1980s and 1990s. Breeding programs have developed resistant selections and natural resistance has begun appearing in wild populations. The Dogwood forests of the East are slowly recovering.

Growing Details

• Botanical Name: Cornus florida
• Stratification: Required, 60 days warm followed by 90 days cold stratification
• USDA Zones: 5 to 9
• Soil: Well-drained, moist, acidic, rich in organic matter
• Light: Full sun to partial shade, best bloom in morning sun with afternoon shade
• Height: 15 to 30 feet
• Spread: 20 to 30 feet
• Growth Rate: Slow, 6 to 12 inches per year

Plant it at the edge of the woods or anywhere that gets filtered afternoon shade. You will look forward to April differently once it is in the ground.