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Coppicing common dogwood

WaysideWayside Posts: 845
edited March 2018 in Tools and techniques
I'm wondering how near to the ground is appropriate for specimens that have trunks from 1 to 3 inches at the base?  I'm after rigourous low regrowth for currently lanky but well established trees.

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Do you mean the colourful stemmed dogwoods such as alba sibirica and sanguisorbia or do you mean things like cornus kousa and cornus controversa?

    The first two can be cut down low every year although I find the sanguisorbias sulk if you cut them down too hard so it's best to cut just one third of the stems back hard every year.

    Cornus kous and controversa want to be small trees and shouldn't be coppiced.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    Cornus sanguinea



  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    As I understand it, cornus sanguinea is the one that comes up with fancies like Midwinter Fire with flame coloured new stems.   They sulk if pruned back too hard but I also found they sucker like mad in my last garden and would pop up new shoots and roots a few feet from the miserable one I'd pruned too hard.  Much better behaved when I was less brutal with the spring prune.

    If yours is a normal version it should be fine to cut back those thicker branches but maybe leave some thinner ones just as insurance.  You can always remove those later in summer if you get a decent crop of fresh new shoots from the base.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    Yes, I had another that had fallen over, and cut it to the base.  Leaving it for dead.  And then suddenly I had a new colony spring up close by as if by magic.  Asthetically it's hard to know what to do, thick stumps are kind of ugly.  I have a multitrunk one, probably coppiced years ago and after cutting that back I feel a little dread, whether to take totally down to base or shorten every little trunk.
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    I agree the stumps are ugly Wayside. I think people must be seduced by the colour and don't notice the stumps. A bit like a lot roses, as long as there are some pretty flowers 
    the shapeless, disease ridden bushes are unimportant


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    edited March 2018
    Coppicing and even pollarding can still produce some interesting specimens.

    Recently I watched my Mum limb up what I thought was a very pleasingly shaped shrub.  I was horrified.  She was happy.  Beauty I guess is in the eye of the beholder.

    I read another article regarding the showy shooting cornuses, and in that they preferred taking a third out rather than going for full on stump.  Little stumps don't bother my eyes if there is vigorous regrowth around.

    I'm currently having that - what have I done - horror moment of regret.
  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904
    nutcutlet said:
    I agree the stumps are ugly Wayside. I think people must be seduced by the colour and don't notice the stumps. A bit like a lot roses, as long as there are some pretty flowers 
    the shapeless, disease ridden bushes are unimportant
    TeeHee!
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    Follow up, lots of thick regrowth after flooring the dog wood.  :)
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