Red Osier Dogwood

[Ben.MN/WI]

Agree with Telemark. I've never seen ROD with bud spacing that close, atleast in the wild. The second shrubs looks like silky dogwood to me. Try to get a look at the berries this fall rod has white the silky will have blue.

I think this is correct and neither of the shrubs pictured are red osier dogwood.

I'd recommend driving around some areas with wetlands and look for ROD on the edges. I also find a bunch in wet road ditches and those are great for using as cuttings since they are typically cut every few years and tend to have straight growth that makes them easy to plant.

 

[Newbie]

Agree with Telemark. I've never seen ROD with bud spacing that close, atleast in the wild. The second shrubs looks like silky dogwood to me. Try to get a look at the berries this fall rod has white the silky will have blue.

I agree with the silky, that's what I was thinking on the second one as well. I'm not sure on the first one either, I think I'm going to take some cuttings and see if they'll propagate & see what happens.

 

[Newbie]

Little further evaluation and I'm thinking the first is a red stemmed willow / Scarlett Willow (Salix 'Chermisina'). I'm not certain but I'm gonna look a little closer when I leave work today. If so, it's just a ornamental willow variety. Hope to cut some stakes from the silky dogwood (will also confirm ID prior) and see if I can propagate them.

 

[Telemark]

It doesn't look like a willow. The way the buds are arranged in pairs makes it look like some kind of dogwood. Could even be a Japanese maple.

 

[Newbie]

It doesn't look like a willow. The way the buds are arranged in pairs makes it look like some kind of dogwood. Could even be a Japanese maple.

I’ll see if I can get a better picture. Most of the buds are alternating although some are very close together & the picture makes them appear as pairs.

 

[Telemark]

Ah, ok then it very well may be some kind of willow. Are the deer eating it?

 

[Newbie]

Ah, ok then it very well may be some kind of willow. Are the deer eating it?

Yeah there was some browse on it, but it didn’t look like it was being hammered either. I’ll have to walk by & get another good look at it

 

[Newbie]

The other was silky for sure. I made some cuttings & will see if I can get them to propagate. I’m aware these aren’t all ideal size but since it was my first go at it I figured I’d cut big small and in-between & monitor so see what’s going to work for me. Bit of a learning curve.

Found tons of silky all over the area. Just one ROD so far but I’ll have to ask the landowner if I can take some cuttings.

Might order some cuttings of ROD to get some plants going this year and see if I can get some plants going & established while I continue he my scavenger hunt. I think my wife thinks I’ve gone mad.

 

[ruskbucks]

View attachment 90577

The other was silky for sure. I made some cuttings & will see if I can get them to propagate. I’m aware these aren’t all ideal size but since it was my first go at it I figured I’d cut big small and in-between & monitor so see what’s going to work for me. Bit of a learning curve.

Found tons of silky all over the area. Just one ROD so far but I’ll have to ask the landowner if I can take some cuttings.

Might order some cuttings of ROD to get some plants going this year and see if I can get some plants going & established while I continue he my scavenger hunt. I think my wife thinks I’ve gone mad.

Just a little advice. Those long cuttings you might want to cut them smaller. What I've noticed is you want to have more sticking in the ground so they put the energy into the roots first. What will happen with those long ones is they will take off good, put on lots of leaves but then the roots can't feed all those leaves and they die. I've done a ton of cuttings over the years and that is the best advice I can give. I usually stick 2-3 buds underground and only 1 or 2 above the ground.

 

[Telemark]

Here's a video about propagating ROD. Not a lot of detail, but it really is a simple process

 

[Newbie]

Here's a video about propagating ROD. Not a lot of detail, but it really is a simple process

Telemark, I’d love to watch but it says the video is private & needs access granted to watch

 

[Telemark]

Sheesh. It took my a while, but I think I figured it out. Should be good now.

I'm not so good with social media. Haven't uploaded a YouTube video in years, and that was probably my 4th or 5th ever.

 

[bigboreblr]

That last picture is silky dogwood. Purple-ish color. Its easier to propagate than red dogwood. Deer enjoy it too.

Downed branches do work just fine. 18 inches to 2 ft tall of stuff at least 3ft away from planting. I take 2.5-3ft of 4ft tall 1/4" mesh and put it around my apple trees. Then I do a 4ft radius of down branches. No deer problems. I just spray gly over the down branches to keep competition down.

Keep in mind brush piles are hotels for rabbits. So, you may have issues there. At some point I may have snowshoe hare damage when the snow is real high. Those guys can reach 3-4ft up.

I do not do much dogwood at camp. zone 3 is really pushing the limits of red and silky. Grey I hear is better. I also have very acidic sandy soil. Silky does grow a bit there. I have very small spots of red dogwood. They can not overcome the browsing on them far as growth rate goes. They also have significant signs of winter die back. This could be related to the soil acidity too. a 1-2 punch of cold, poor "root diet', and more days the ground is frozen and providing to the plant.

Got a ton of planting material? Tie in together in bunch and completely bury it like a water pipe. Contractor do this for stream restoration to promote dogwoods and willows to prevent erosion.

With silky dogwood, I bury about a foot deep and leave 1 bud exposed, sometimes 2. More buds = more leaves = more stress on roots to get water. I seal the top with a bit of latex paint.

Willow propogates easier than dogwood, but here's a few ideas.

https://dep.wv.gov/wwe/getinvolved/sos/documents/more/restorationusingwillows.pdf