Old Dogwood Has Crinkled & Discolored Leaves

Shirley in Canton has a question, ‘about my dogwood, it’s a white dogwood but part of it is pink, however this year I don’t know what’s happening but it started to crinkle and die on certain spots, turning more brownish red. And I was wondering was there like something going around, you know, like the blight or something? It’s about 30 years old.’

Okay, it kind of almost sounds like anthracnose, which is an environmental fungus and it does sometimes affect older trees. A lot of times it is just from year to year. It is hard to say without seeing it but usually fertilizing and giving it some nutrients next year would be a good thing to help it.

I mean it is older, so it might be on its time, but dogwoods are long-lived. Fertilizing in the spring usually is good, but a lot of times it’s an environmental stress kind of thing. So it’s hard to say without seeing a sample of it but I want to say something like that with the leaves crinkling and also discoloration.

I mean it is one of those things too, that if you bring in a sample to either store or a picture, we may be able to tell you specifically what is causing it. But it does sound like it’s some sort of like fungus possibly, or just environmental change, or it’s maybe it could just be having a rough year.

A lot of times certain things that are under stress can get more fungal issues than other things. Next year, fertilizing and keeping it healthy will be a good thing to do, but if you do want to bring in a picture and a sample to either one of the stores we’d be able to you know help you out farther and see what’s going on,  because there might be something underlying that we’re not seeing.

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