Arbor Day 2021 Will Offer Free Seedlings:  
​Dogwood and Crape Myrtles!

​Flowering dogwoods grow to a height of 35 to 40 feet.  It is a low-branched tree, usually with a flat-topped crown, oval or ovate leaves, about three to six inches long and one to three inches wide.

Creamy-white flowers with four petals each appear in early spring.  A deciduous tree (looses its leaves in the fall), dogwoods are most often found growing in forested, shady areas under other hardwoods and pines.

The beautiful white blooms of the dogwood is one of the first signs of spring in Georgia forests.  While pretty to look at, the flowering dogwood provides food for wildlife.  Red fruits develop in the fall.  Mammals from squirrels to deer (and at least 28 bird species) eat the fruit.

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The common crape myrtle is a deciduous, small- to medium-sized shrub or small tree with a variable, moderately dense habit, often multi-stemmed form.  The showy pink (a color known as Watermelon) flowers have wrinkled petals like crape paper.  The foliage is dark green, changing in fall to yellows, oranges, and reds.  The thin gray bark is exfoliating, exposing a smooth, vari-colored underbars ranging from brown to gray.

It needs plenty of moisture when young.  After it is established it will tolerate drought and grow well in limited soil spaces.  The lower branches are often thinned to show off the trunk form and color. 

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