Using the Propagation Technique Known as Budding to Grow Beautiful Ornamental Trees
Flowering Dogwood trees can be easily grown from seed. However 99.9999% of the seedlings that sprout will be Cornus Florida, which is White Flowering Dogwood. It doesnt matter if you collect the seeds from a White Dogwood or a Pink Dogwood, the seedlings are likely to be white.
The only predictable way to grow a Pink Dogwood, Red Dogwood, or one of the beautiful Dogwoods with variegated leaves, is to bud or graft the desired variety onto a White Dogwood seedling. Thats why the botanical name for Pink Dogwood is Cornus Florida Rubra. Cornus means Dogwood, Florida indicates White, Rubra indicates Red or Pink. Cornus Florida Rubra indicates Pink Dogwood grown on White Dogwood rootstock.
Between budding and grafting, budding is the most common technique used in the nursery industry. Grafting is usually done in the late winter months when the plants are dormant. When you graft a plant you remove a small branch (4 to 6 inches) from the desired variety, trim the end of the branch to expose the tissue under the bark and then trim a taper on the end. You then trim the seedling in...