On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 22:46:02 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

They survive industrial gardening with a a chain saw so I expect they
are pretty hard to kill.

....unless they are the variegated type, which grow slower. I once cut
back a variegated dogwood very hard before I knew this, it has taken a
long time to recover.

Gardening on Wilts/Somerset border
on slightly alkaline clay.