Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. A cultivar is a named variety of a particular plant that was selected or breed to have certain characteristics, often they’re vegetatively propagated so all the plants with that name are exactly the same. It used to be that people often planted seedling dogwoods in their yards and the only downside was perhaps waiting a long time for the trees to bloom.
But today there are many diseases of dogwoods – anthacnose, powdery mildew and other leaf infections – some more serious than others. But all affect the beauty of this native tree that blooms along with our azaleas to make showplaces of southern gardens. Fortunately, there are cultivars available with resistance to some of these diseases, an example is Appalachian Snow, and you should choose one of those when adding dogwoods to your landscape. Search Clemson HGIC dogwood and dogwood diseases for more information.