Cornelian Cherry Hedge Plants Cornus mas, the Cornelian Cherry, or edible dogwood, is a small tree or large shrub and is ideal as either a specimen or as part of a mixed hedge. It flowers early in the year (which is great for bees), usually starting in February, sometimes January, with loads of small, yellow, witch hazel-like flowers appearing on the bare branches. It looks fantastic when the morning or afternoon sun is behind it and shines through the branches. The flowers ripen into bright red, acidic, edible cherry-like fruits, which give this tree its common name of Cornelian Cherry (Cornel is another word for dogwood). The leaves turn a lovely reddish-purple in the autumn to finish off the show: it doesn't have brightly coloured new bark, but mature plants have moderately interesting, flaky brown bark. All of which make it one of those "three tricks in one" garden plants that help create year round interest. It can reach 5 metres if it's pruned into a tree, but about 3 metres is typical for a shrub in the wild. Browse all of our other varieties of Dogwood, our selection of shrub hedging or our full range of hedging plants. Delivery season: Cornelian Cherries are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-March inclusive. Features Height: To 3-5m Soil: Any. Thrives on chalk and damp soil. Use: Hedging, Specimen, Waterside Colour: Yellow flowers in Jan/Feb - March Edible red fruit in June-August RHS Plants for Pollinators Bareroot delivery only: November-March Growing Edible Dogwood Dogwoods are tough shrubs that thrive in damp soils near water, but once established are also fine in dry, poor soil. They won't flower much in more than partial shade, so if you are planting them as a specimen, the more sun the better. To be clear, this dogwood should not be hard pruned down to ground level every spring as you would with an ornamental dogwood like midwinter fire, although it's fine to hard prune it if it gets overgrown. History & Trivia Formerly classified as Cornus mascula, we say that it has a technical RHS Award of Garden Merit because four of its cultivars do. Little is known of its origins in Britain, except that it has been naturalised here for several hundred years and is native to Southern Europe and Turkey. The fruit tastes like a sharp plum when fully ripe, but even slightly under ripe ones are too sour to enjoy fresh, and they do not all ripen at the same time, so it is often made into jams (you will need to add pectin). In the past, the fruit was commonly preserved in brine like an olive, and it's making a bit of a comeback in permaculture gardens, especially on wet ground where most fruit trees struggle. There is caffeine in the seeds, which can be roasted and ground into a powder.
