Plant of the Week 59 is Mexican Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida var.
pringlei (syn.
Cornus benthamidia urbaniana)
I'm not sure how cold hardy the plant is, but it is a stunner to be sure. The reflexed sepals really make this dogwood stand out (no, they're not glued together
). It is incredibly rare in the trade.
As a rule, I'm not a big fan of
C. florida and rarely use it in the landscape. In this part of the country, poor drainage, powdery mildew and dogwood borer are omnipresent on Flowering Dogwood and inevitably do them in (we see Anthracanose only in the spring -- summer heat kills it off, so it's not such a big problem here like in cooler climes). The hybrids and Kousas are much tougher plants and provide a lot less in the way of headaches.
This was a real tough plant to call. Official Plant Geeks this week are: NCSULandscaper, VoodooChile, and dan deutekom (special thanks to dan for providing the alternate botanical name above). Partial credit goes to: jwholden & phototropic1.