Audubon® Native Southern Swamp Dogwood

From red to gray branches - this deciduous ornamental shrub will add a unique flair to your garden! In early spring, clusters of petite white blossoms coat the shrub as the lance-shaped foliage adds an elegant backdrop. By summer, the dainty flowers turn into pearled berries, becoming a feast for orioles, chickadees, Northern Mockingbirds, wood warblers, and many other local birds come for a visit and a snack! Gray Dogwood is adaptable to poor soil conditions, so if you have a problematic area in your landscape, this is the perfect perennial shrub to plant. The list of attributes keeps going, as this beauty celebrates fall dressed for the occasion in a beautiful burgundy-purple fashion!

Gray Dogwoods are deciduous shrubs native to the eastern and midwestern regions of the U.S. Southern Canada also recognizes this tree as a native to their region. Great for wildlife, deer enjoy visiting Gray Dogwood for a foraged snack, squirrels enjoy the early growing berries, and birds can be seen nesting in the protective branches. In the wild, Gray Dogwoods can grow to form thickets perfect for sheltering birds and other small mammals.

A versatile native, Gray Dogwood is found in a plethora of different locations out in the wild, from rocky terrain to along streams and ponds. This deciduous shrub has much to offer to a landscape. Late spring brings white flowers in clusters called racemes, the basis for the name racemosa. Once flowers are gone, white berries take the place of the blooms on the branches. The gray-green leaves turn to a dusty purple/red in fall, which may or may not be showy, depending on the year. As the berries die off, the red of the stems can be more easily seen, providing early winter interest.