Celestial® Dogwood - Hybrid White Dogwood

Celestial® is a cross between our native flowering dogwood and the Asian kousa dogwood. It was bred at Rutgers to keep the big white spring show of the native tree without its disease problems. It resists anthracnose, powdery mildew, and dogwood borer, the problems that have taken out so many native dogwoods in home landscapes.

The bracts, the showy part most people call the flower, open white with a green tinge and overlap into a shallow cup about 3 to 5 inches across. As they age they blush pink before dropping. Once established, it blooms heavily. The tree grows dense and upright, holding roughly the same width from bottom to top, and the dark green summer leaves turn purple-red in fall.

At 14 to 18 feet tall and 12 to 15 feet wide, it fits near a patio, beside an entry, or in a smaller yard where a spreading native dogwood would crowd things. It blooms just as native flowering dogwood is finishing and ahead of kousa, so planting it alongside either one stretches your dogwood season.

Be aware that Celestial® is sterile and doesn't set fruit, so there are no berries for birds. If supporting native wildlife is your main goal, make a native flowering dogwood your primary tree. Cherokee Princess or Appalachian Spring are good choices. Use Celestial® where you want reliable bloom and disease resistance.

Give it full sun to part shade, with afternoon shade in hot summers. It does best in moist, well-drained, slightly acidic soil rich in organic matter, and it won't tolerate standing water. Because it's a hybrid, it's more forgiving of less-than-ideal conditions than the native tree. Keep a few inches of wood mulch over the root zone to hold moisture and keep roots cool. We ship it bare root and dormant, so plant as soon as it arrives and follow our tree planting guide, which is also what qualifies your tree for our warranty. If you're in zone 5b or colder and ordering in fall, we can hold your tree in our cooler and ship it in early March.

Celestial® comes from Dr. Elwin Orton's dogwood breeding program at Rutgers University. He began crossing C. florida and C. kousa in the mid-1960s, looking for a dogwood that could stand up to borers and disease, and the results were released as the Stellar® series. Celestial® was patented in 1990 under the name 'Galaxy.' Rutgers switched to Celestial® after learning Ford already owned Galaxy.

References

• Rutgers University, Celestial® dogwood: https://research.rutgers.edu/agricultural-products/dogwoods/celestial
• Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder, Cornus 'Rutdan' Celestial: https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?isprofile=0&taxonid=268783
• University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension, Celestial™ Dogwoods: https://www.uaex.uada.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/plant-week/celestial-dogwoods.aspx
• Oregon State University Landscape Plants, Cornus × rutgersensis Celestial®: https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/plants/cornus-rutgersensis-celestial

General care for any tree or shrub is easy, but like any living thing will require your attention. Please educate yourself and follow these simple rules.