A tremendously useful group of small trees which produce copious numbers of bright yellow globular flowerheads, made up of clusters of tiny yellow 4-petaled flowers. Flowering in February, the flower clusters are particularly showy on the bare stems. From these develop usually bright red fruit in late summer. Easy to grow, they are tolerant of most soils and sites. Naturally multi-stemmed and shrubby in habit, they are very tolerant of pruning and can readily be formative-pruned to achieve a single trunk and more traditionally tree-like form.

Cornus mas has a huge distribution from eastern France, extending south and east across into Southwestern Asia. It is bred and cultivated extensively for culinary purposes; when ripe it is said to have an acidic flavour akin to a combination of cranberry and sour cherry. Popular uses for the fruit including making jam, sauce and drying. It is also distilled into various vodka like drinks in a number of countries. It has a use in traditional medicine in some cultures.

Cornus officinalis is native to China, Korea and Japan where it is also used as a food and medicinal plant. 

Visually, the most notable difference between the two species is that C. officinalis often has the added benefit of attractive exfoliating bark.

It is advantageous to plant a named cultivar of Cornus mas or Cornus officinalis rather than a seed grow plant of the straight species. Extensive breeding and selection has resulted in a number of superb cultivars that reliably produce a prolific display of flowers and large fruit from a very young age. Seed grown plants of either species will be variable and will take many years to flower, with the potential to then disappoint! Often it doesn't really matter which cultivar you choose, because the differences between many of them are subtle. However, in addition to those selected for superior fruit and flower, some have also been named for their foliage colour, though unfortunately most of these aren't that spectacular florally. 

We propagate all our plants of these species from cuttings, so they are on their own roots. Elsewhere it is common practice to graft them. This is done purely for commercial reasons because it produces a larger plant more quickly, and requires less skill. However, they sucker dreadfully, and the suckers soon take over and ruin the plant. We prefer to play the long game and do it properly! They can still sucker if that’s their nature, but the suckers are the same as the main plant and so they all grow happily together with the same characteristics that you chose the cultivar for.