TREES FOR BEAUTY AND COVER 
The dogwoods. The flowering dogwood of the East and the 
Pacific dogwood of the West are two of our most beautiful trees. 
The attractive white “flowers” appear before the leaves in the eastern 
dogwood, but after the leaves in the Pacific dogwood. 
The eastern dogwood grows from northern Maine and Michigan 
south to north central Florida and west to eastern Texas and eastern 
Kansas. It grows better on light soils than on heavy soils and seldom 
occurs on poorly drained soils. Litter from dogwood is rich in 
minerals, beneficial to trees and other plants. 
Dogwood grows up to 40 feet tall and 12 inches in diameter. It 
grows rapidly for 20 to 30 years but very slowly thereafter. Dogwood 
is easily injured by fire and is susceptible to drought. After injury 
or cutting, the tree sprouts vigorously. 
The Pacific dogwood has a much smaller range, growing along 
the Pacific coast from southern British Columbia to central Cali- 
fornia. It grows to larger sizes than the flowering dogwood. 
Plant dogwoods not only for their flowers but also for their orange- 
red berries and red fall coloring. 
Southern magnolia. This evergreen broad-leaved tree grows 
from North Carolina along the Atlantic coast and gulf coast to 
southeastern Texas. It seldom is found at elevations of more than a 
few hundred feet. It has, however, been planted successfully as 
far north as Massachusetts on the Atlantic coast and as far as British 
Columbia on the Pacific coast. Although it is native usually to 
bottom-land or even mucky soils, it has been planted successfully on 
well-drained upland soils. 
Mature southern magnolias may grow to 5 feet in diameter and 
100 feet in height. More commonly they are 60 to 80 feet tall and 
2 to 3 feet in diameter. These trees have few serious enemies, except 
fire. 
Plant southern magnolia to accent its large white flowers and glossy 
evergreen foliage. 
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