White Flowering Dogwood is widely regarded as the most beautiful of all the native trees, largely because of its spring flowers blooming from March through June
The flowers appear large, but in fact the flower itself is a small, green circle, about the size of a dime. The show-stoppers are the four large, white brachts that open up framing the actual bloom.
Bumble and other native bees, moths, flies and butterflies all flock to the Dogwood, which also is a larval host to the Spring Azure butterfly, Lo Moth, Cecropla Silkmoth,
False Crocus Geometer and dozens of others.
Flowering Dogwood does not fade with its flowers. Rather, this tree creates beauty in all four seasons, with vibrant red fall foliage and glossy red fall fruits beloved by birds. The white dogwood (Cornus florida) is a small to medium-sized tree with showy white flowers in the spring, red fruit in the summer, and red-purple leaves in the fall:
Size: White dogwoods can grow to be 15–40 ft tall and 20–25 ft wide.
Shape: They have short trunks, low branches, and a rounded or flat crown.
Flowers: In mid-spring, the white dogwood produces small, inconspicuous flowers surrounded by four large white bracts.
Fruit: In late summer, the white dogwood produces bright red fruit that birds love to eat. The fruit is poisonous to humans.
Leaves: The white dogwood's leaves are dark green, oval or ovate, and 4–8 in long. In the fall, the leaves turn red-purple.
Soil: White dogwoods grow best in well-drained, clay, loamy, sandy, moist, rich, and acidic soils.