On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 12:46:35 -0400, paghat wrote
I hadn't realized dogwoods grow back from stumps or rootcrowns in any
permanent way, but if like suckering trees they do so, then my guess, akin
to yours, would be they'd behave much as broken-off maples which can grow
back as large upright bushes that after a couple decades still look like
bushes. This could be very attractive for a dogwood, though no longer
looking like a tree.

The house where I grew up (in Gainesville, FL) had two circles of
dogwoods just past the carport. It was obvious that they had been two
trees, cut, resprouted. I don't know whether the trees were cut when my
parents built the house or before or after. I was only 7 at the time,
and the lot was uninhabited prior to their acquisition of it. But my
earliest memories of those dogwoods are of their being large enough for
me to climb in, which makes it sound like the trees were cut earlier.
Or perhaps they died or were broken by wind and yet still managed to
sprout from the stump.

Now, from the above you get my drift: these did develop into full sized
dogwood trees. In fact, they have been, oh, I'd guess about 30' tall
for as long as I can remember. The house is now 48 years old. The
dogwoods are clearly senescent and have lost a few of the trunks, but
they keep on going. Just a month ago they escaped damage when a large
hickory, 2' diameter, fell on my mom's carport, destroying the carport
but damaging neither the two cars underneath nor the dogwoods.

So yes, they can sprout from the stump and grow into full sized trees,
even several on one stump. Whether this is typical, I can't say. Have
you seen second-growth redwoods that sprouted from the stumps of
first-growth cuts? It's similar on a much smaller and less vigorous
scale.

Edward