Monday, October 5, 2009

Do I Know This?


I looked out from the front porch at the Dogwood tree, and was surprised to see these beautiful red berries all over the tree. I was stunned. I do not recall seeing these berries on the tree before. I think that this is about my brain, not about the tree... :-) I just don't remember them last year. What a dolt! Clearly they have always been there. Anyhow, I grabbed my camera, and a step ladder so I could get close to the branches, and went to work.. The berries are brilliant, so please click on the image to see it with better color.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, Ken. They haven't always been there...Here's something from a gardening Web site:

"There are a few reasons why you haven't seen berries until now. It takes most dogwood trees about 15 years to mature enough to produce a good crop of berries. You may not have seen berries in previous years because the berries are green before they mature and can be difficult to see among the green leaves. When the berries do mature to red, the leaves are often red and they can't easily be seen."

Here's the link to the Web site:
http://www.helpfulgardener.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3450

We looked this up on the Internet because we were shocked to see the berries this year, too.

Don't know if it's the same kind of dogwood you have. Ours gets a nice bloom of flowers in spring.

Ken Spencer said...

Wow, this is great! Thanks so much for the information - I *may* not be loosing my mind! It is an old dogwood - it was here in 1971 when we bought the house. It does have lovely blooms in Spring. I will let you know in a year if the berries come back. Stay tuned...