Pagoda Dogwood
Cornus alternifolia
A native dogwood with tiered, pagoda-like branches that catch snow in winter, fragrant creamy flowers in late spring, blue-black berries for birds and burgundy-red fall colour. It's at its best in part shade where summers are cool, in moist, acid soil with mulched roots, out of strong wind.
- Mature size
- 20 × 26 ft
- 6 × 8 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–7b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- May–Jun
- Fall color Oct–Nov
Pagoda Dogwood at its mature size
A mature Pagoda Dogwood grows 15 to 25 feet tall and 20 to 32 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Missouri Botanical Garden.
Through the year
What Pagoda Dogwood looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Mar
Bare: horizontal branch tiers clearly visible, greenish-brown twigs.
In leaf · Apr, Jun–Sep
Layered tiers of medium green oval leaves, no flowers.
In flower · May
Flat clusters of creamy white flowers sitting on top of each branch tier.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Maroon to reddish-purple, moderately bright.
Photos
Growing Pagoda Dogwood
- Grows well in
- The Northeast and the Midwest.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Specimen, deer resistant, pollinators, fall color, and winter interest
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Eastern North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Pagoda Dogwood, that’s about 26 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Pagoda Dogwood in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other dogwoods
Red Twig Dogwood
Kousa Dogwood
Pagoda Dogwood
Flowering DogwoodAll drawn to the same scale.