Dogwood Vs. Redbud

Varieities

• Redbuds come in tree form, with varieties such as the eastern redbud and a subspecies, the Oklahoma redbud, native to North America. The Chinese redbud hails from Asia and bears many similarities to the other two types. Your choices of dogwoods for the landscape are much greater. Dogwoods come in tree and shrub form. Native dogwood trees include flowering dogwood, alternate-leaf dogwood, red-osier dogwood and roughleaf dogwood. Kousa, Cornelian cherry, evergreen, giant and tatarian dogwoods are non-native species.

Size

• Neither dogwoods nor redbuds attain large sizes, making them versatile in their applications. Eastern redbud averages from 20 to 30 feet tall, with some cultivars of the tree as tiny as 4 feet high, such as Covey. Chinese redbud grows between 8 and 15 feet. Dogwoods vary in height, with the giant dogwood only considered large when compared to its cousin; it grows to 40 feet. Flowering dogwood matures to 30 feet, but the Red Pygmy cultivar is sometimes only 3 feet high. Shrub forms like Japanese cornelian cherry dogwood grow to 25 feet, but much smaller types, including dwarf red tip dogwood, are 2 feet tall.

Features

• Both dogwoods and redbuds possess interesting foliage, with both types of plants often displaying colorful fall foliage. The flowers of redbuds emerge before the leaves, developing up and down the branches and sometimes even from the trunk. Dogwood flowers grow in clusters at the ends of branches in species such as red-osier dogwood, but the flowering dogwood has tiny inconspicuous flowers surrounded by modified leaves. Called bracts, these colorful leaves give the flowering dogwood extreme ornamental value when the flowers bloom. Redbud flowers generate hanging seedpods that persist into winter, while dogwood flowers produce seed-bearing berries, often in clusters, which attract hungry wildlife.

Growing Conditions

• There are more cold-hardy dogwoods than eastern redbud forms. Species of dogwood such as yellow twig dogwood and tatarian dogwood survive in chilly U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zone 3, while the redbuds with the most cold tolerance, eastern redbud and some of its cultivars, handle USDA zone 4, but no colder. The flowering dogwood grows from zones 5 through 9 and the kousa dogwood from zones 4 through 8. The redbuds handle the humid and hot conditions prevalent in zone 9, making them options for the extreme Southern states.

Uses

• The shrub forms of dogwood, including red twig dogwood, are candidates for property lines, shrub borders, group plantings and placement in wet areas to prevent erosion. The smallest dogwood species, like the dwarf tip variety, function as foundation plants and as ground cover. The larger dogwood and redbud trees work as specimen plants on lawns and patios, or as part of woodland gardens.