They are within 3 feet of my neighbor's driveway. But, that driveway is
slightly uphill from my house, and in addition there is a constant source of
underground water somewhere near the trees, because a sinkhole developed
near one of them this year. And, that's the side the water comes in the
basement when the water table gets high.

So I don't think that lack of water is a problem. The trees are planted 3-4
feet apart, and are almost as tall as my 2 story house.

I NEVER use lawn chemicals or other chemicals in my garden. If pests get
bad I either hose them off or use insecticidal soap.

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

"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?