Cornus has one branch with different coloured leaves
dappledshade
Posts: 982
in Plants
My young cornus, planted last year in a sheltered, east facing site, and looking very happy, has all its new leaves out now. It’s also about to flower. Most of the two stemmed plant has variegated cream and green leaves, but one section of one branch only has bright green leaves. It looks like another plant has been stuck onto it, it’s that odd! Why is this? I know this can happen in grafted trees, but is my cornus likely to have been grafted?
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Many special Cornus are grafted.
You bought a variegated Cornus...if you do not remove the plain green suckers they will grow faster until they are bigger, stronger than the variegated leaves.
Delve down into the soil to see where they are coming from and remove asap.
I planted this cornus in autumn last year. What do you mean by remove the suckers? There is nothing to see below the joint line where the two main branches join the stem, if I scratch the soil away, except the roots below the main stem.
My mistake: the part that has green leaves is on a main branch that also has some variegated leaves on it, as well.
Sorry to confuse you.
New pics help.
That is called reversion.
Remove the plain green branch where it joins the variegated branch.
Watch for any more that may appear in the future.
In future years, when your plant has settled and is a bit stronger, you need to cut the stems back to one or two low pairs of buds every spring and then give it a good feed of general fertiliser such as pelleted chicken manure or blood, fish and bone to strengthen it. This way, you will renew the lovely stem colour which is a great addition to the garden in winter when stems are bare and you will get fresh foliage every year and maintain a reasonable size.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
The main branch to the right is variegated and green, so do I need to cut off the entire branch then? I’m nit sure at what level to do this.
The only other main stem, to the left, has no signs of reversion.
I had toyed with the idea of cutting that green bit off, but had stopped short because I’d read it's best not to prune a young cornus in the first planting year.
I had decided to wait until March next year, but if it’s not too late then I’ll chop out the green parts now (I i know where to chop from, exactly 😊)
Thanks.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
Sorry.
I don’t want to get it wrong, as it seems to be doing so well.
I’m a bit concerned about pruning, because there is a small, ornamental cherry in next door’s front garden, that has bacterial canker and is almost dead from it.
It is situated about 5-6m away from my cornus.
Are cornus susceptible and am I risking harming it, if it has open wounds?
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw