Cornus alternifolia 'Winter Orange'
 

or not so orange, as it were. This might have been put into C.
controversa now, I don't remember.

Anyway does anyone grow this? Mine has some orange branches and others
that are very dark. Doesn't appear to correlate with the age of the
branch. Is it just that I have a bad one, or is there something I ought
do to encourage more orange growth? It has a nice form, so I don't want
to hack at it to remove all the dark branches.

Thanks,

-E

Cornus grown for winter stem colour is hacked back to ground level in March each year. However that isn't normally the case with C. controversa and alternifolia (which seem hard to separate), which are normally grown specifically for their form.

If you want something to have a reliable bright orange winter stem colour, then there are other ones available, of the kind you hack back each spring.