les wrote:

Could someone please advise me of the best method for pruning dogwood. I
have followed the instructions in a gardening book and for the past 2 years
have pruned it back, in March, to about 4 inches from the ground. The
problem I have is that the new growth is very lax and needs to be tied up to
keep it reasonably tidy. I am sure that I have seen nice, bright red dogwood
with erect, stiff stems. How can I achieve this?

I favour pruning about one third to half of all stems out each year
leaving the most colourful and avoiding crossing branches. On poor soils
it is too brutal to take them down to ground level every year and you
get weedy fragile watery stems that break in a strong wind.

Just cut out the parts that have lost their stem colour.

Regards,
Martin Brown