Cornus rutgersensis Celestial Shadow - Rutgers Dogwood

Cornus x rutgersensis 'Celestial Shadow' is a fascinating mutation of the hybrid dogwood 'Celestial', offering foliage with absolutely incredible colours. This hybrid forms a small tree or large deciduous bush with gracefully spreading habit, making it suitable even for smaller gardens. Its large deciduous foliage, medium green with yellow margins, is very bright and takes on quite unreal shades of pink, fuchsia, and violet as soon as the first cold weather arrives. In late spring, this small tree is covered with a mass of cream-white bracts that sometimes turn a soft pink when mature. It is a rare and original variety that is also endowed with exceptional resistance and vigour. Easy to grow in full sun or partial shade in a good, well-drained, rich, moist, and lime-free garden soil.

Cornus kousa or the Japanese dogwood is a small tree or large bush, native to Japan, China, and Korea. Its graphic silhouette, supported by tiered and horizontal branches, gives it a very Japanese look. The hybrid Cornus florida x kousa 'Celestial Shadow' or Cornus x rutgersensis 'Celestial Shadow' is a mutation of 'Celestial', a cross between C. florida and C. kousa developed at Rutgers University in New Jersey with the aim of obtaining dogwoods that are even more disease-resistant and vigorous. In this sense, the variety is particularly resistant to anthracnose. This cultivar has an upright and spreading habit, reaching about 6m (19ft 8in) in all directions after many years. Despite its slow growth, it is a robust and easy-to-grow bush as long as it enjoys morning or evening sun, not too scorching, and a well-drained, moist, preferably fertile, and lime-free soil.

'Celestial Shadow' blooms in May-June, even on plants aged 3 to 4 years. The bush is adorned with a multitude of large 'flowers', which are actually inflorescences. These are clusters of small true flowers, green, surrounded by 4 oval and pointed bracts, arranged in stars, cream-white in colour, sometimes turning a very soft pink at the end of flowering. The flowers are arranged on the tree as if they were placed on the foliage. The flowers are sterile in this variety, which explains the absence of fruits. The bush has large foliage, medium green with yellow margins, which turns pink, fuchsia, and violet in autumn. The leaves of this Cornus are ovate, strongly veined, slightly closed, somewhat undulate on the edges, and pendulous. They measure between 5 and 8cm (2 and 3.1in) long and are arranged opposite each other along the branches.

Cornus x rutgersensis 'Celestial Shadow' thrives in continental climates with marked summers and winters, but performs very well in milder areas too. In hot regions, it must be protected from the scorching sun, in always moist soil. This Japanese dogwood is still rare in gardens but yet very easy to grow once it has been carefully planted. It is a beautiful attraction on its own and deserves to be planted in isolation, standing out in the middle of a short grass meadow for example. It will also be advantageous at the back of a boder composed of heather or evergreen shrubs with staggered flowering or persistent foliage. Choose, for example, to accompany it with oakleaf or paniculate hydrangeas, Japanese maples with purple foliage, snowberries, a Cercis, a Fothergilla, or a Tetradium daniellii, the bee tree.