Cornus controversa Candlelight - Giant Dogwood

The Cornus controversa Candlelight is a variety of Pagoda Dogwood whose foliage colour changes throughout the year. Its silhouette of layered branches, particularly architectural, starts the season in golden tones, gradually transitioning to light green, and finishes in autumn with an explosion of red and orange hues that are truly stunning. In late spring, the shrub is covered in flat inflorescences of white flowers, followed by decorative blue-black fruits in August. Deciduous, it loses its foliage at the beginning of winter, allowing for the appreciation of its characteristic branches.

The Dogwood belongs to the small family of Cornaceae, which, after several revisions in botanical classification, now only includes the genera Cornus and Alangium. There are several dozen species of Dogwoods, most of which are shrubs, but some, like Cornus nuttallii and Cornus kousa, form small trees. This is also the case with Cornus controversa, native to China, Korea, and Japan, where it can reach heights of up to 12 metres. It has a straight trunk and a vegetation of horizontal layers, evoking the distinctive architecture of pagodas in the Far East, from which it derives its common name.
Candlelight, which can be translated as "candlelight," is a horticultural variety easily recognisable by its young golden foliage. In spring, bright shoots appear on the branches, standing upright like lit candles, through which the sun loves to play. The analogy is reinforced by the shrub's tabular habit, which naturally forms well-stacked layers of vegetation, mimicking a giant chandelier found in certain castles. It forms a large shrub or small tree with a single trunk, reaching a height of 4 metres in 10 years and the same width, and at maturity, it can exceed 6 metres. Carried by flexible petioles, the ovate acuminate leaves (with a sharply narrowed tip) change from yellow to light green during the season, while inflorescences appear in June. Small cream-white flowers, grouped in 10 cm diameter cymes, then develop above the foliage, creating a pleasant scene in the garden. They later evolve into small spherical fruits, initially green, which then turn blue-black starting in August, providing a new ornamental interest to the plant.
Autumn is another ornamental highlight in the plant's cycle, as it accumulates colourful pigments in its leaves due to the first cold weather. The leaves then create a symphony of red and orange, even purple, that catches the eye in the garden at a time when flowering is scarce.

This golden-foliaged Pagoda Dogwood will be perfect in a shaded area of the garden, illuminating it with its bright foliage. Create an exceptional scene by planting the Sambucus nigra Straight Lace next to it, an elderberry with a similarly architectural habit, forming a dark purple, almost black, column with light and extremely dissected foliage. Its spring pink blooms in large corymbs are particularly highlighted by the dark vegetation, which contrasts strongly with the golden yellow of your Dogwood. Another exceptional foliage is that of the Mahonia Volcano, a small shrub 1.50 metres in height that you can plant at the base of Candlelight. Evergreen, its highly dissected foliage possesses the elegance of the most beautiful ferns, and from August to October, it graces you with splendid yellow blooms in the form of bouquets of spikes emerging like will-o'-the-wisps above the dark green foliage. And to extend the flowering period of your flowerbed into spring, while staying within the theme of astonishing foliage, indulge in the Cercis canadensis The Rising Sun, an Eastern Redbud whose pink flowers appear as early as April on the wood, before the large almost-round leaves, whose geometry will contrast nicely with the dissected foliage of the others. As for their colour, it constantly changes from their appearance to autumn, where they turn orange-red.