Cornus sanguinea 'winter flame' to replace a small beech?

At the moment we have a small beech in the middle of a decorative bed which is situated between a kilmarnock willow and a Golden Willow Salix - both kept under 6 foot. We are looking to dig out the beech as it is becoming harder to control and perhaps replace with Cornus sanginea Winter Flame. I would appreciate any advice on whether this plant would be suitable for a gap of a maximum of 2 metres and would it be worth buying a larger plant to get it established. Not sure how quickly it would grow this year in the North East. Many thanks in advance.

 

Hiya Stanley

Winter Fire can be fickle in my experience. Can look awful until established and even then it struggles for some. I have given up on this one
Large plants are often slower to establish than smaller plants....good time to plant now with plenty of compost added plus a handful or so of fish blood and bone.

I much prefer other varieties like Elegantissima with red winter stems and white and green foliage in summer or Aurea with the same bright red stems but yellow foliage in summer. Both are more reliable, more vigorous and easily kept to 6' or so with hard spring pruning.

My muhly grass is growing well .....whether I have those pink flowers or not, well, fingers crossed

 

If Cornus s. Winter Flame is happy, in moist soil, and with no root damage, it's stunning. But....if it gets stressed by drought or root damage it will sucker horribly. For the best stem effects in winter, you need to chop it hard in March, which does leave a big gap in the planting until the new stems grow. On balance, as Verdun says, C. Elegantissima is probably a better option, or even an Acer like Senkaki (Sango Kiku) or Red Wood.

 

Thank you Verdun and noisette47 - I will certainly have a look at C Elegantissma as I already have a small Acer in the bed and it struggles so might be better not going for another.

Verdun - fingers crossed for the pink flowers on the muhly grass I am pleased that the seeds came good for you.

 

Thanks Stanley

 

Maybe take a look at the various Sambucas there are available. I grow lots as they are much tougher than Japanese Acers and might suit you better being in the North East. They have the nickname of "poor man's Acer" but to me they are great plants and nothing much poor about them!. I grow Midwinter Flame. It's ok...ish but is in a very sheltered spot and suffers from die back most winters. I grow lots of the red stemmed Dogwoods and Aurea is very nice. Better out of the cold winds tho, the lovely yellow leaves can get scorched by wind otherwise.
All the Sambucas respond very well to being hard pruned. The 1 in the photo (variety Black Lace) I let get big and then will cut down to about 3 ft come the Spring every alternate year.

 

Thank you Verdun and noisette47 for your replies I will certainly look at Elegantissima instead of Winter Flame as the latter sounds as though it would not do well in my garden. I already have a small acer which doesn't do particularly well.

Glad to hear the muhly grass is growing well and fingers crossed for pink flowers.

 

Hello Silu - I already have a Black Lace in another bed in the same part of the garden and it is growing well. Definitely interested in the Aurea - the intended bed is quite sheltered but I would certainly watch out for wind damage.

 

Aurea also holds its yellow colour well ...doesnt burn in summer heat as some yellows do

 

We have an excellent garden centre (family run) and they have ordered some Aurea for us to look at - great service and knowledgable staff so no worries there.

Thanks everyone for your ideas.

 

Brilliant Stanley....lovely plant

 

Just an update and a quick question about looking after our Cornus Alba Aurea (which we ended up with) - planted last year in summer and it established well - or so we thought. Over winter it didn't drop its leaves and now the leaves are shrivelling and the plant doesn't look at all healthy. I have tried to look online to see what this may possibly be but nothing seems to match what is happening. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions of what it could be and what I can do to look after it. Will also take some photos and a couple of the dead leaves back to the garden centre where we bought it and see if there is anything they can suggest.

 

Hiya Stanley.
Have you watered it? It needs moist soil, even wet.
It is best cut back every year to produce lots of upright new stems ....these new stems produce the best coloured (red) stems for winter

 

Thanks Verdun - I will keep a careful eye on it with regard to watering - I think it may have been a little dry especially as we have had a drier half to the year here in the North East.

 

Sounds good Stanley...it would not have liked being dry at all
A good watering and then a thick mulch too