Scarlet Fire® Kousa Dogwood

Large dark pink/red blooms are rare in a kousa dogwood and that's exactly what make Scarlet Fire special. The palm sized bloom bracts appear in the late spring to early summer and provide a dramatic statement during a time when most other trees are finished blooming. The blooms will first appear a lighter pink then darken to a deeper red over a period of 6-8 weeks. This two month long display ensures that the scarlet fire will make a dramatic statement and bring a long period of enjoyment to your home or garden. It's rare to find blooms like this, and it is even more rare to find beautiful qualities like this in a pest free low-maintenance tree. That's why we definitely recommend adding a Scarlet Fire Kousa to your yard. 

We like this kousa as a specimen tree in a garden arrangement or in a partly sunny or shady spot near the front of a home. The dark pink blooms will speak for themselves late May to early July, but the dark green foliage and mottled bark are great company for early spring and late summer blooms. We prefer to trim our kousa up neat, removing the lower branches while they are small to expose the lower portions of the trunk. This will create a neat look and reveal the beautiful mottled bark. Without proper pruning, a kousa can get rather shrub-like, so once the tree is established we recommend taking off the lower branches with sharp clean pair of pruning shears.

Scarlet Fire represents the culmination of over 45 years of dogwood breeding at Rutgers University's New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. The program was initiated in the 1970s by renowned plant breeder Dr. Elwin Orton Jr., who sought to develop disease-resistant alternatives to native dogwoods being decimated by anthracnose and other diseases. Dr. Thomas Molnar, who received his PhD from Rutgers and worked as a graduate student under Dr. Orton, continued the breeding work with a specific goal: to develop a kousa dogwood with unprecedented deep pink coloring in time for Rutgers' 250th anniversary in 2016. Working with field researcher John Capik, Molnar made numerous crosses using parent plants developed through decades of Orton's work. Success came earlier than expected when a three-year-old tree in Row 11—designated "1121"—bloomed with the breakthrough fuchsia color they'd been pursuing. The cultivar was introduced in limited quantities in 2016 and became widely available through commercial nurseries in 2017. Named "Scarlet Fire" to honor both Rutgers' school colors and the brilliant hue of its blooms, the tree received the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Gold Medal Plant award in 2022. Today, approximately 40,000 trees are sold annually in the United States and European Union, with hundreds of thousands planted across North America [1].

While kousa dogwoods generally provide less wildlife value than our native Cornus florida, they still contribute meaningfully to pollinator and bird populations. According to NC State Extension, members of the genus Cornus support three species of specialized mining bees: Andrena fragilis, A. integra, and A. platyparia [2]. The small greenish fertile flowers at the center of the showy bracts provide nectar for bees and other pollinators during the late spring bloom period. In late summer, kousa dogwoods produce distinctive round, pink-to-red compound fruits on long stalks—globular drupes resembling small strawberries that ripen in autumn. These fruits attract songbirds, squirrels, and other wildlife [2].

[1] Rutgers Official Website - Scarlet Fire Kousa Dogwood
[2] https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/cornus-kousa/

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.