These early-season wet periods have lead to some of the problems we are now seeing on dogwoods over the state. Let's go back to last spring, when dogwood roots were stressed by too much water. It is true that dogwoods like water, but too much of a good thing resulted in soils which remained saturated for extended periods. This created root stress conditions, leading to root rot. The same wet conditions in the spring were favorable for dogwood spot anthracnose development.
Spot anthracnose is a fungus disease which affects leaves.
The disease was widespread, and although spot anthracnose usually doesn't cause much damage, it was more severe than usual. Anthracnose was followed by powdery mildew, another fungus disease, which was also widespread over the state. These two diseases interfered with the ability of leaves to manufacture food and perform other important leaf functions. Hot, dry weather in late July, which continued through August and up to the present time in September, further created stress conditions for dogwoods. Due to their shallow root system, dogwoods seem to be more adversely affected these weather conditions than other tree species.