Tatarian Dogwood

Tatarian dogwood is the multi-stemmed shrub you plant for winter bark color. When the leaves drop in fall, the real show begins: vivid red stems, sometimes coral, sometimes deep crimson depending on the selection, standing out against the gray-brown winter landscape of the Puget Sound lowlands. It grows eight to ten feet tall with an upright, suckering habit, native to northern and eastern Asia from Siberia through Manchuria to northern Korea. The flowers are small, yellowish-white, in flat-topped clusters in May and June, not particularly showy, and the fall color is red. But nobody plants this for flowers. You plant it for those stems.

The best stem color develops on young wood, which means annual or biennial hard pruning, cutting the entire plant to within six to twelve inches of the ground in late winter, is the standard maintenance practice. It sounds brutal, but the plant responds by throwing vigorous new shoots that color intensely the following winter. Nine diseases and six pests are tracked, including canker diseases and scale, but healthy specimens in good soil rarely show serious problems. Full sun to part shade, adaptable soils, and tolerance for wet conditions make it a natural fit for rain gardens, stream banks, and low spots where other shrubs struggle. For a mass planting that provides winter color and summer screening with almost no input beyond an annual haircut, Tatarian dogwood is hard to beat.