Flowering Dogwood Tree Sapling Indoors

[jetdry]

Hey I was just wondering if anyone could give me some advise regarding growing a dogwood tree indoors. I have recently received several small healthy clones of both red/pink and white flowering dogwoods, and I am afraid that by the winter time they will not be hearty enough to take the cold. If I was to grow the trees indoors over the winter would this effect the flowering times of the tree?. I have been told that the tree is generally ready to be put outside after two winters and was curious as if there is anything special I would need to keep in mind to do so.

Thanks, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[tomc]

Temperate deciduous trees do not suffer central heat & A/C.

You live in less than 20% humidity, they live in 50+ % humidity.

[applestar]

Tomc, could you elaborate how to manage caring for these young trees? It sounds like they are rooted cuttings. Is it true they can't take the winter outdoors 1st and 2nd years?

I was thinking you would grow the trees outside during the summer and in fall once they go dormant, they could be placed in locations protected from seriously freezing temperatures such as the unheated garage in my case (it does get down to mid20's in there though).

I was considering moving this thread to the Bonsai Forum....

[tomc]

If I was growing them in NH (zone 4-5) I'd want to overwinter them in a cold house. here in SE-OH I'd set the pots out in a shallow trench with a liberal application of leaf mulch.

In central heat and A/C deciduous trees take a double hit, of too dry and too warm. its like burning a candle from both ends.

[rainbowgardener]

jetdry, you didn't say where you are; it makes a big difference. Flowering dogwood is rated hardy down to zone 5. Are these in containers? Stuff in containers is more vulnerable to cold than stuff in the ground. But if you are in zone 6 or above, I would just put them in a big container give them some winter protection (like putting the container against a south facing wall, or putting it inside a straw bale) and leave them out all winter.

[jetdry]

Sorry about that.. I'm located in Ontario with my zone roughly being a 4b-5 (seems to be slowly getting lower). The trees are just in small pots right as the cloning was only a few weeks ago and don't think they are quite strong enough to transplant

[rainbowgardener]

OK, now I understand the problem better! I think flowering dogwood is only rated hardy to zone 5, so you may always need to at least give it some winter protection. Small babies in small pots would definitely need a lot of protection. I still would hesitate to just have it indoors in your living space. It needs cold dormancy and would not do well in a dry, heated space. I would think about something like a minimally heated garage or the coldest space in your house. (I have a guest closet right next to the front door that is pretty cut off from the house heat that I use for things like that. It gets very chilly but not freezing.)

[Gary350]

Those flowering dogwood trees grow wild in Tennessee. I had a pink one and a white in my yard for several years until a storms broke them off, there was nothing left but a stump. Humidity in TN is very high usually 95% most of the time. TN has on average 300 days of rain every year. Dogwood trees grow wild in the forest of Tennessee and southern Illinois. They must like shade because they grow naturally in the forest where there is a lot of shade. They grow slow in the forest but will grow much faster in your yard where they get a lot more sun. I have never seed those trees grow very large once they become about 15 feet tall strong wind from a thunder storm will snap them off a few feet from the ground. These trees have no wind protection in an open yard so they don't last very long.

[rainbowgardener]

what part of Tennessee were you in? I looked up Nashville weather and it said 119 rainfall days a year. Seattle has 140 rainy days a year.