Flowers:
Cream (Small, creamy-white flowers in flat-topped cymes (1.5-2" dia.) in late spring)
Foliage:
Green; White (Beautiful variegated leaves with green centers and white margins); Red-Violet (Poor, purplish-red fall foliage)
Fruit:
White (Showy, blue-white drupes that birds love; summer)
Soil:
Adaptable to a variety of soil conditions, but prefers a moist, well-drained soil
Diagnostic Characteristics:
Leaves (2-4.5" long and half as wide) opposite, simple, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, usually rounded at base, green center with white margins, and somewhat glaucous beneath. Dogwood veins sweep toward, but never contact, the leaf margin. Round fruit is white-blue and flattened slightly at each end. Stems are greenish-red in summer, turning to a blood-red in fall and winter. Stems have prominent whitish lenticels. Difficult to separate Cornus alba and Cornus sericea in winter.
