Other Names:  Evergreen Dogwood

Description:

A truly beautiful specimen tree for the home landscape, covered with showy white flowers in spring; shiny, evergreen foliage provides year round interest; very particular as to siting, requires rich, well-drained acidic soil and adequate precipitation

Ornamental Features

Moonshine Chinese Dogwood features showy clusters of lightly-scented white flowers with white bracts held atop the branches from late spring to early summer. It has attractive dark green evergreen foliage which emerges coppery-bronze in spring. The glossy pointy leaves are highly ornamental and remain dark green throughout the winter. It features an abundance of magnificent pink berries from early to mid fall. The smooth gray bark adds an interesting dimension to the landscape.

Landscape Attributes

Moonshine Chinese Dogwood is a multi-stemmed evergreen tree with a stunning habit of growth which features almost oriental horizontally-tiered branches. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance tree, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting birds to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Moonshine Chinese Dogwood is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Shade
• Hedges/Screening

Planting & Growing

Moonshine Chinese Dogwood will grow to be about 25 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 25 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 2 feet from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 40 years or more.

This tree does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is very fussy about its soil conditions and must have rich, acidic soils to ensure success, and is subject to chlorosis (yellowing) of the foliage in alkaline soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.