Cornus Blooming White Tetra - Flowering Dogwood

Cornus 'Blooming White Tetra' is a hybrid dogwood variety with a compact habit that is highly decorative with its white flowering and semi-evergreen foliage that blazes until late in the season. Well-suited for small spaces, this bush also produces beautiful edible fruits, much to the delight of birds. Very hardy and less demanding to grow than its parent, Cornus kousa, and its cousin, C. florida, it undoubtedly deserves to be discovered. Give it a prominent place, preferably in partial shade, in a large shrub bed and in non-chalky soil.

The 'Blooming White Tetra' Cornus is part of a new series of hybrids resulting from the cross-breeding of Cornus kousa, a deciduous variety, with C.angustata, which has evergreen foliage. This series, called 'Blooming Tetra', brings together cultivars with a modest stature with well-branched, semi-evergreen foliage, which produce large "flowers" and large fruits. Their foliage takes on orange to red tones early in autumn and the spectacle lasts for several weeks. All these plants belong to the dogwood family.

It is a small tree that generally reaches 2.50 m (8 ft 2 in) in height and 1.50 m (4 ft 11 in) in width at the age of 10. Ultimately, it will reach approximately 3 m (9 ft 10 in) in height and 2.50 m (8 ft 2 in) in spread, depending on the growing conditions. This cultivar shows rather slow growth. The flowering takes place in May-June when the bush is covered with a multitude of 'flowers', which are actually inflorescences measuring 8-9 cm (3.1-3.5 in) in diameter. These are clusters of small, green true flowers, surrounded by 4 pointed bracts, forming a star. Their colour is pure white and does not change over the course of the approximately 6 weeks that these bracts live. These inflorescences are arranged on the tree as if they were placed on the foliage. The flowers are followed by pink to carmine-red fruits, similar to strawberries. The higher the summer temperatures, the more abundant the fruiting. The fruits are edible, fleshy and sweet in taste. They are not very tasty, but they enhance the charm of the bush at the end of the season. This dogwood is also remarkable thanks to its young shoots tinged with purple. The leaves are ovate, strongly veined, slightly wavy on the edges and medium green. They turn to beautiful orange and then red colours in autumn and partially persist on the branches. 

The 'Blooming White Tetra' Cornus thrives in continental climates with pronounced summers and winters, but also performs well in milder areas. In hot regions, it should be sheltered from scorching sun. This dogwood is beautiful and deserves to be planted in isolation, standing out in a small garden or a large shrub bed. Many ericaceous plants and shrubs with staggered flowering can accompany it. Choose, for example,  oakleaf hydrangeas or paniculate hydrangeas, Japanese maples with purple foliage, a Japanese Styrax, etc.