How to Grow and Care for Evergreen Dogwood

Cornus capitata

I’ve yet to meet a dogwood I don’t like, but evergreen dogwoods (Cornus capitata) have a special place in my heart.

These stately trees have foliage that persists year-round, plus glorious flowers in the spring followed by edible fruits. The evergreen dogwood hits all the right notes for me.

Evergreen dogwoods can grow up to 50 feet tall and wide, or even wider, though there are cultivated hybrids available in different shapes and sizes.

C. capitata blooms later in the season than native dogwoods, and the species is hardy only in Zones 8 and 9, though some subspecies are hardier.

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Whether you’re looking for a tree to punctuate your garden, want an ornamental that produces edible fruits, or you need a cute shrub that will add long-lasting flowers to the landscape, C. capitata can do it all.

Our guide to growing dogwoods covers general care of species in the Cornus genus. This guide zeros in on the evergreen species.

There’s a lot to know and love about this plant, so here’s what we’ll cover:

Evergreen dogwoods originated in the Himalayas in China, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bhutan.

They are also commonly known as Bentham’s cornel, Himalayan flowering dogwood, and Himalayan strawberry-tree, and were formerly classified as Benthamidia capitata.

The elliptic or lanceolate, leathery leaves are dark green on top, and grayish-green with a fuzzy coating made up of flattened hairs on the undersides. They can be up to five inches long.

Though you see it less often than you would with deciduous trees, the bark is pretty, too. It’s dark, almost blackish-gray.

All the young shoots are covered in downy hairs.

Though it’s evergreen, that doesn’t mean you’re giving up fabulous fall foliage as the leaves usually turn a pretty purplish-red come autumn.

Of course, part of what we love best about most dogwoods are the flowers. In the case of C. capitata, they bloom in the early summer with white, yellow, or pale green bracts.

After the blooms fade, they’re followed by pink, strawberry-like edible fruits.

The flavor of the fruits ranges from sweet and fruity like a mango to downright bland.

I think they’re a lot like persimmons in that you have to let them get nice and ripe for the best flavor.

After you remove the seeds, you can eat them fresh or use them in sugary desserts or as an interesting addition to savory dishes like fish or pork.

The pretty white flowers are actually colorful bracts, which are modified leaves.

If you look closely at the center of the four to six bracts, you’ll see a cluster of dozens of tiny flowers in a hemispherical mass.

How to Grow

Evergreen dogwoods are ideal for growing as a focal point or specimen tree, but smaller cultivars work well in groupings.

They’re also ideal in woodland, Japanese, and English gardens. If you’re trying to create a naturalized area or a bird-friendly garden, this species should be top of your list.

Since the fruit is edible, they’re perfect for growing in food forests and edible ornamental gardens.

When evergreen dogwoods are happy, they’ll bloom profusely. When they’re not, they won’t blossom well. That’s your hint to try and figure out what’s going on.

Let’s have a look at their cultural requirements:

Climate

Even though these trees are hardy in Zones 8 and 9, they don’t typically do well in the heat and humidity of the south.

Evergreen dogwoods work well as windbreaks as they aren’t susceptible to wind damage. They’re also tolerant of salty wind coming in off the ocean, so you can even grow them in coastal areas.

While usually evergreen, the trees might drop their leaves during the winter in the colder end of their hardiness range.

If you live in such an area, try growing your evergreen dogwood against a southern-facing brick or cement wall, which creates a microclimate and will reflect the sun’s heat during the winter and keep the tree just a bit warmer.

The leaves that change color will typically drop in the spring.

Light

Plant your evergreen dogwood in full sun or partial sun. In hot climates, shade in the afternoon is a necessity.

Soil

You should also look for a spot with organically-rich, well-draining soil. Neutral to slightly acidic is best, though they’ll tolerate a little alkalinity. On the pH scale, aim for 5.5 to 7.0.

Avoid planting evergreen dogwoods in heavy clay or extremely sandy soil.

Water

The soil should stay consistently moist or just the top inch or two be allowed to dry out.

You’ll need to pay special attention during the heat of summer to keep the soil from drying out.

Fertilizing

Don’t feed young evergreen dogwoods at all. They should have all they need from the soil and we don’t want to encourage them to grow too rapidly.

Use it according to the manufacturer’s directions, or feed in the spring as the flowers bud out and again in the summer after flowering.

If you opt to skip the soil test, feed in the spring and summer with a product formulated for trees. One of my favorites is Down to Earth Tree and Shrub.

It’s made from feather meal, fish bone, kelp meal, soybean meal, and rock phosphate with the right NPK ratio of 4-2-4 for young trees.

Down to Earth Tree and Shrub

It also contains mycorrhizal fungi, which helps roots develop. You can find Down to Earth Tree and Shrub in five- or 25-pound packages at Arbico Organics.

Cultivars to Select

There aren’t many evergreen dogwood cultivars out there and just a few subspecies, but for those outside of Zones 8 and 9, it’s definitely worth watching for them since they’re all hardier than the species.

Chinese

C. capitata subsp. angustata grows to about half the size of the species as a large shrub or small tree.

It tops out at about 20 feet tall and wide. It can be a bit more floriferous than the species, but besides the size and hardiness, it’s fairly similar in all other ways.

It’s hardy in Zones 7 and up, though you can keep it in 6b if you plant it against a south-facing brick wall.

Happenstance

‘Happenstance’ is an impressive bloomer that is hardy in Zones 6 to 9.

In Zone 6, it might act as a semi-evergreen, but regardless of the Zone it will bloom like a dream.

It’s the perfect size for a smaller garden or even a container, since it tops out at about 20 feet, though it takes decades to get there.

Mt. Emei

C. capitata subsp. emeiensis (sometimes called C. omeiensis) is slightly hardier than the species, growing in Zones 7 to 9.

Mountain Moon

This is the most popular evergreen dogwood cultivar out there and the one you’ll find at more stores.

That’s because it’s much more cold-tolerant than the species. Plus, it maintains a nice size for most gardens, growing up to 25 feet tall and about 15 feet wide in Zones 5 to 8.

The flowers are also larger than the species, the bracts reaching up to six inches in diameter.

Coupled with their bright white coloring, you could easily imagine them shining bright like a Himalayan full moon.

The blooms can last throughout late spring and almost to midsummer.

Yoko

‘Yoko’ is a hard to find but extremely hardy cultivar, growing up to 20 feet tall.

It thrives in Zones 6 to 9 without any trouble.

Pruning

You don’t have to prune your evergreen dogwood unless a branch breaks or you notice signs of disease.

Otherwise, feel free to leave it to its own devices. If you really want to get in there and give it some shape, it responds well to pruning.

Prune back to the nearest branch or trunk wherever you want to thin the area out or take back some length. Don’t apply any sealant to the cut area. The tree will heal itself.

Propagation

The fruits produce seeds that you can use to propagate new evergreen dogwoods.

You can also take cuttings from existing specimens. Let’s talk about seeds, first:

From Seed

If you’d like to start this plant from seed, that’s certainly an option. It will take a while before the tree matures and you can’t grow cultivars or hybrids from seed.

Well, you can, but they probably won’t grow true.

You can purchase seeds, but it’s fun to try harvesting your own. The seeds are on the inside of the berry. There’s usually one per fruit but in some cases there can be multiple.

When the fruits are ripe, they drop to the ground and generally they’ll be nabbed by animals pretty quickly.

One time when I was shaking my dogwood, he came bounding out to grab some of the bounty before realizing I was there and hightailing it back to his burrow.

So, yeah. Your local wildlife loves the berries.

When you have some ripe fruits, open them up and pull out the seeds. There will be some pulp attached. The easiest way to get rid of this is to toss the seeds into a bowl of lukewarm water.

Let them soak overnight and then rub the seeds in a colander to remove the rest of the pulp.

Next you can either lay them out on a cookie sheet in a cool, protected area out of direct sun and shake the tray once a day to let them dry, or you can sow them right away.

If you sow in the fall, put them in the ground about a quarter of an inch deep and place a little screen or other material over the ground to protect the seed from birds.

You can also sow in the spring, but to do this you’ll need to cold-stratify the seeds in the refrigerator for eight weeks.

You might want to put a little wire cage around the seedling to protect it from hungry critters.

From Cuttings

Most dogwood species propagate well by softwood or semi-hardwood cuttings.

To do this, head outside during the spring or early summer and cut the end off a branch.

1. The cutting should be about six inches long with lots of growth. It should have several leaf nodes and the wood should be pliable and able to bend a bit.
2. Make the cut with sterilized clippers just below a leaf node.
3. Remove all of the leaves except the top two and dip the end in rooting hormone. 
4. Fill a four-inch container with seed starting medium and place the cutting an inch or two deep in the potting medium.
5. Place the cutting in a spot outdoors with morning light and keep the medium moist at all times.

Leave it in the growing container until the fall and then plant your cutting in the ground a few weeks before the first predicted frost date.

Transplanting

You can plant your evergreen dogwood in the spring or fall. Prepare the ground by digging out a hole that is twice as wide and deep as the growing container.

Work a good amount of well-rotted compost or manure into the removed soil.

Water the soil well. It will probably settle a little and you’ll need to add a bit more soil.

Managing Pests and Disease

Anthracnose has devastated dogwood trees in some areas. But evergreen dogwoods appear to be resistant to this horrendous disease.

If you’re dreaming of a dogwood and you know that anthracnose has been an issue in your area, try an evergreen.

You’ll probably have more problems with herbivores than insects and disease, so let’s cover those, first.

Herbivores

Young trees are vulnerable to feeding by rabbits and deer, but older trees aren’t in any danger.

Deer might nibble a fruit or young leaf during the winter, but the trees aren’t a primary target.

Just put a little fence or cage around young plants and they’ll be fine.

Insects

Unless your dogwood is stressed by issues like extended drought, overwatering, or too much shade, pests won’t be a problem.

Disease

The vast majority of gardeners will never have any disease issues with an evergreen dogwood.

However, be aware that leaf spot caused by Phytophthora ramorum was found in nursery trees in California in 2023.

That likely means that this disease will continue to spread in the future. But for now, it’s extremely rare.

Leaf spot causes brown, irregularly shaped spots on the foliage that can be up to a third of an inch in diameter.

If you see these symptoms, contact your local university extension office and report the disease or bring in a sample. Many states are interested in tracking the movement of this disease.

If your tree were to be one of the rare ones that becomes symptomatic, you can usually get on top of the disease if you act quickly. Prune off symptomatic branches and spray liberally with liquid copper, but it’s a tough disease to cure.

Other than that, so long as you didn’t plant yours in a swamp or something, your tree shouldn’t be subject to any diseases.

Our guide to dogwood diseases makes sobering reading if you are feeling pessimistic.

A Dogwood With Evergreen Elegance

Dogwoods are some of my favorite trees. I don’t think a garden is complete without at least one type.

And while I adore the more popular flowering dogwood (C. florida), it just won’t work in an area of the landscape where I need some evergreen color.

But C. capitata gives me all the beauty of other flowering dogwoods without losing its foliage in the fall.

I planted mine along a roadway where I wanted to increase the privacy of my yard a little. What about you? How will you use yours? Let us know in the comments section below!

And for more information about growing dogwoods in your landscape, have a read of these guides next: