What is my cornus doing?

Berkley

In June last year I bought a cornus Baton Rouge. I chose this particular cultivar because of its slim, upright habit and was delighted with the way it looked in the corner spot (photo taken August). I had a marvellous display of brilliant red stems throughout the Winter and cut it down in March, as I always do with other cornus in the garden. But now it looks completely different (2nd photo taken yesterday): a few stems are growing upright but a large number at ground level are growing outwards, almost at right angles. What has happened - and would you remove these stems? Could it possibly be lack of water? I think this is very unlikely and the whole plant looks very healthy ....

Helix

It’s just doing its normal cornus thing.  The shoots will head upwards and straighten out if there is enough light.   If you look at the first photo the stems do start by curving outwards. But it looks nice and lively.