"Betsy" -0 wrote in message
...
I inherited two rather spindly looking dogwoods when I moved into this
house almost 5 years ago. I adore dogwoods, but these are tall, thinnish,
too close together, and all the lower branches had either died out or been
stupidly pruned.

They are native white Florida types. I am pretty sure they have
anthracnose. (Baltimore area)

Two questions:

First, has anyone ever successfully saved a dogwood from this disease? Is
there any treatment I should try?

Second, if there is no hope, and they will ultimately succumb, what would
happen if I planted a new Kousa dogwood under them, to fill in as they die
off? Would that be smart or dumb?

Can Kousas be pruned somewhat to have the same elegant, oriental type
shape of the Florida species, or would that be foolish?

P.S. All the local dogwoods look pretty bad this year. Are some years
hard on them? We've had a horrible, wet, long winter.


Fungus diseases, in general, can go in waves, some years bad, some not. My
first question involves how your trees are planted. In other words, are they
located in spots which approximate what dogwoods really like? A bad example:
In my first house, the prior owners planted a dogwood 18" from a blacktop
driveway, which, of course, is like a pancake griddle in the summer. Wrong.
The tree was always struggling. We finally developed a watering routine
which seemed to help the tree look better during years when diseases were
rampant.

Where are yours planted? Can you be MUCH more specific about how close the
two trees are? What surrounds them? How (if at all) do you water them? If
they're surrounded by grass, what substances do you apply to the grass?