All I can say is that our dogwood was "assisted" once by a tree shmexpert
who put all sorts of little hypodermic (or "hypobarkic" - my invented word)
vials of medicine in the tree, and the next year, which was a bad one for
fungi, the tree looked worse. Unless you want to take a shot at that sort of
treatment, I think all you can do is help the trees be as healthy as they
can be. That might include a soil test for pH and nutrients, because you
never know.

Our sycamore also had fungus issues, and we were given some good advice:
Even though fallen leaves are *usually* great for mulch or compost, we were
told to clean up and discard the leaves from the sick tree. You should
probably do the same for your dogwoods in the fall. As far as the distance
between your trees, that sounds close to me, but I have not checked any
expert sources. Have you? What about your cooperative extension service?


"Betsy" -0 wrote in message
...
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?