A LARGE FAMILY

Cornus kousa belongs to the Cornus family, a hugely variable genus that encompasses approximately 45 species of mainly deciduous shrubs and small trees. These range from creeping ground cover Cornus canadensis to the brilliantly coloured winter stems of Cornus sanguinea and the incomparable, tiered wedding cake tree, Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’. The common name, dogwood, harks back centuries to when the hard wood of the winter-flowering cornelian cherry, Cornus mas, was used to craft daggers, and called dag-wood. As its origins became obscured with the passing of time, the name dogwood was adopted for all members of the Cornus family. An earlier English name for dogwood was whippletree, a term used by Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales. A whippletree is an element of the traction of a horse-drawn cart, linking the draw pole of the cart to the harnesses of the horses in file. These items still bear the name of the tree from which they are commonly carved. Circa the 17th century, Cornus kousa was brought to Europe by plant hunters from Asia, where they are native to Japan, Korea and China. However, it was not until the early 1900s that the Chinese variety was introduced, Cornus kousa var. chinensis. An especially robust form, this flowers a little earlier than the species tree, with large, broad bracts and good autumn colour. The arrival of the Chinese form paved the way for plant breeders to develop vigorous cultivars, such as ‘China Girl’, circa 1910, and ‘Milky Way’ in the 1960s. However, it was in the 1970s that there were significant developments in pink cultivars. A 17th generation Japanese nurseryman, called Toshihiru Hagiwara, selected an upright cultivar and named it ‘Beni-fuji’. Not long after, ‘Miss Satomi’ followed, its distinctive low-growing, spreading habit making it a popular choice for small gardens.