Gardening

BRITAIN has just one native dogwood — Cornus sanguinea or cornel. The wild form is hardly a show-stopper, but selected garden forms can be spectacular. Finest of these is C. sanguinea Midwinter Fire. Young twigs have dark greenish or straw-coloured bark in the growing season. In autumn, the colour intensifies to vivid orange or scarlet. For maximum winter colour, prune C. sanguinea hard back each spring or every second spring. This encourages clusters of new, thin stems which flourish through summer and develop colour in autumn. Before they fall, the leaves turn red, gold and orange.