[EzLou]

I bought a Dogwood today for 7.99- its for Ginger guinea Pig's tomn/pot as he only has an ornamental cabbage at the moment.

The Dogwood is very tall - and very friendly it kept sticking its tendrils in my ears on the way home - is it the sort of thing that I could prune at the top so it gets bushier but not taller?

[Selkie]

I'm sure dogwood is something that gets cut back each year so keep the stems brightly coloured?

I've never grown it myself so that's about the limit of my knowledge on the subject I'm afraid

[EzLou]

Its still a lot more than I know!

[gobs]

It's not commonly pruned and grown that way, Lou, see in Wizzy, Splodger wrote about it.

[Lynne]

I have several dogwoods and now is the time to give them a really hard cut back. You will soon get new growth this year to get the lovely stems next winter. If you don't cut them hard, they can get leggy and too big.

[EzLou]

Its very leggy and huge now! - D I cut it back to the ground or to where there is a new branch growing?

I had to put it in the garden in the end - it needed a really big hole and I dug into gingers gravepot but came across maggots .... and hair!! Oohhh nooo.
So I abandoned that plan - planted a small twiggy thing my mum gave us [its got buds - no one has any idea what it is tho] in the pot instead and found a spot for the Dogwood near the back of the garden.

[EzLou]

id appreciate any advice re-where to cut back to - thanks.

[Vegpot]

I had some dogwood that I cut back very hard one year which ended up dead, so now I don't cut it back too hard on the main stems, I keep the bush as a whole about 3ft high and just keep the smaller ones short and that seems to work OK.  They change colour a lot in the winter months and can look a bit drab in the summer but they provide brilliant colour when the garden is dull, hope yours thrives!