Useful towards the back of a shrub border for the fine textured appearance and the yellow flowers. Cornum amomum Silky dogwood, Red willow 8 x 8 Hardy Zone 5. Fairly fast growing, native to low woodlands and along streams. A bit course for the small home landscape. Yellowish white, nonfragrant flowers in June, followed by interesting porcelain blue fruit clusters in August.
Younger branches are purplish red in winter.
Best used in masses, in shrub borders, and for naturalizing in wet, shady areas. Red ozier dogwood, Redozier dogwood, American dogwood 6 x 6 Hardy Zone 3. Some sources list this as Cornus sericea. Others list it as a subspecies of Cornus alba, which is imported from Siberia. We have personally seen it growing wild in road ditches in Allamakee and Winneshiek counties in Iowa.