Customer Reviews

Dogwoods: The Genus Cornus

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This comprehensive book is a must for anyone considering raising or breeding dogwoods. Indeed, anyone setting aside the money and space for a dogwood tree should first look at this book, or perhaps one other: The only source I know of that comes close is the "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants" by Michael A. Dirr. Naturally, this book, which looks only at dogwoods, includes some cultivars not covered by Dirr, and has about 2 or 3 times as much text as Dirr does for each cultivar.

The sort of info covered? Depth of information varies, but basically: Breeder or introducer; whether it's a sport of another named variety; height, width and form; flower, berry and foliage description (size, color and shape); flower density; blooming period; often word on resistance or otherwise to various fungi; patent number, if applicable (some varieties are not yet patented or even available for sale, but are included due to the authors' opinion of their superior merit); and whether the cultivar is a "bogus" name or copy of another cultivar.

This book also has lovely photos (The Dirr book has only some line drawings, although Dirr has other, also excellent books, with color photos, but which are far less comprehensive). Not every variety has a photo; many have just a close-up of a flower with bracts; others include a photo of the overall look of the tree in bloom, or with autumn color, or close-ups of autumn berries. It really helps to have 3 or 4 photos to judge a cultivar properly. If one were to fault the book for anything it would be for not having 3 big photos for all of the (non-bogus) cultivars, but then it would weigh -- and cost -- twice as much.

Written by the former horticulture director of the Bernheim Arboretum and award-winning gardener and horticulture expert Don Shadow, Dogwoods is an in-depth guide to dogwood trees and shrubs, which have been immensely popular as ornamental plants especially since the 18th and 19th centuries. Offering an overview of all dogwoods of horticultural note, including species of trees, shrubs and groundcovers, and illustrated with more than two hundred gorgeous, full-color photographs, Dogwoods is the perfect guidebook for determining the type of dogwood best suited for one's garden and highly recommended for anyone interested in cultivating these beautiful plants. A highly informative species-by-species detail, intended especially for gardeners but accessible to lay readers as well. All gardeners would be well advised to send for the free Timber Press catalog for a complete listing of their titles.

Very high quality photography and high quality writing and organization. I don't believe there's a competitive book on the subject and it's unlikely that an author will be motivated to exceed the quality of this book. I am not an expert on dogwoods, and this book has encouraged me to grow more dogwood species.

The book contains a good description of Dogwood cultivars. I found it useful for identification purposes. Pathologies affecting Cornus are also well described. On the other hand I found that cultural techniques are insufficiently addressed.

It's a great book for plant geeks and more casual gardners as well. Unfortunately, I think it's written from the perspective of a Southern gardner, so the information is often very much slanted to dogwwod growers from the South and to a lesser extent, the East Coast. I live in the Pacfic NW and I was looking for some in-depth information on our native dogwoods, the Pacific Flowering Dogwood and Bunchberry (Red Osier dogwood is hard to kill here so I didn't need too much help with it). Their discussion of the Pacific Dogwood is very brief, taking up about one page. Same goes for Bunchberry. With both species, they determine that they're very hard to grow in the South. Oh well, it's still a good book with lots of good information and beautiful photos. If you are a fan of the Eastern and Asian dogwood varieties, this is the book for you!