White Jade Wilson's Dogwood. Since first seeing this plant at the JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State, Raleigh, NC, I have dreamed of the day that we would be able to offer it. When this dogwood becomes more available and better known, I believe it will be one of the more sought-after plants in the nursery trade. This Chinese species was introduced to the world by E. H. "Chinese" Wilson of the Arnold Arboretum who collected it during the period of 1901-1905. It is truly one of the great gems of the genus "Cornus" with its "ghostly" white exfoliating bark which makes it one of our more outstanding winter-interest plants. The bark closely resembles that of Stewartia pseudocamellia. As one can see from the pictures, it is also quite showy in flower, although the blooms don't have the typical bracts of C. florida and C. kousa, but rather small white flowers in panicles similar to our native C. alternifolia, but much more showy. Small blue-black berries will be produced in the fall. In the American garden, one should count on a small to medium size tree of 20-25 feet; although, in China there are reports of it growing much larger. In the Deep South, one should site it in filtered sun or morning sun and afternoon shade, but further north it will do well in full sun. The first few years it is an amazingly vigorous grower. We have easily witnessed 3-4 ft. of growth in its first few years, and the bark started to exfoliate at three years from a rooted cutting. Our source for this cultivar came from the J. C. Raulston Arboretum at NCSU in Raleigh, NC. The original source of this plant was from seed collected at the Shanghai Botanical Garden. The picture of the flowers is courtesy of Mark Weathington, director of the J.C. Raulston Arboretum. The plants we offer are rooted cuttings from the tree pictured below. It is one of the more difficult plants to root that we have ever tried, so this is represented in the price. But once planted out, it is amazingly vigorous, and it doesn't manifest all of the diseases and insect problems of our native dogwood. The plants we are offering are 2-3 ft. in height. We have a limited number initially, but more coming along for next year.
Zones 5-8
