At A Glance: The Venus Dogwood

I was  fortunate to hear recently from Wolfgang Eberts in Germany; he apparently read my previous posts on the Venus Dogwood.  He tells me that this fabulous dogwood has proved to be very popular in Europe.  He accompanied Elwin Orton, the hybridizer of Venus, to the Chelsea Flower Show, where it took a well-deserved gold medal.  Wolfgang is a plantsman, and an European distributor of Venus.  His  nursery also sells other fine plants, including bamboo.  What fun to hear from him.  All of the pictures are courtesy of Wolfgang Eberts.

Wolfgang Eberts

from left to right; Wolfgang Eberts, Elwin Orton, hybridizer of Venus from Rutgers University, and Hugh Johnson-taken at Chelsea

trade show display of Wolfgang’s nursery about Venus


trade show booth

detail, Venus flower


fall color


Venus dogwood does not set much fruit here, but when it does, it is spectacular.  For more information on Wolfgang Eberts, try www.cornus-venus.com, and www.bambus.de.  What a pleasure it was for me to hear from him.

Comments

  1. I will surely check out the Venus Dogwood. It is quite a show stopper.The Autumn color is phenomenal.

  2. Deborah – Have these freshly planted in Franklin per your plan. They are holding up well in this heat with plenty of H2O. Excited for the “show” next year!

  3. I’ve been searching for info on ‘Venus’ and just came across your post… my concern is the wide variety of hardiness rating I see published regarding this plant… do you have any info regarding this? We are generally zone 5 here in Wisconsin… Thankyou, Larry

    • Deborah Silver says

      Dear Larry, I have planted better than 80 of these trees in the past few years, and have not lost a one. But it only takes one really brutal winter to damage a tree. The oldest Venus I have planted has been in ground for 6 years. Deborah

  4. Deborah,

    I find myself in somewhat unfortunate situation of having some room to plant a few new trees this year (unfortunate because the opportunity arises because of some nasty winter damage), but as I was researching what to plant I had a vague recollection of the Venus dogwood that you’ve written about before. Unfortunately nurseries near me tend to offer most common (to be correct, more commonly sold) trees and I can’t seem to find one that offer this. Do you, by chance know of a mail order nursery that offers these (at some realistic size, even if it means paying a lot for shipping)?

    • Deborah Silver says

      Dear Erin, not so many nurseries carry Venus. The European distributor emailed to thank me for planting them! A nursery near me-Telly’s Greenhouse, on John R in Troy Michigan carries small ones. I would try them, and see what they say. 1 248 689 8735. Good luck! Deborah

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