Cornus alba is well represented in this garden. With problems of winter wet and rather heavy soil where many plants struggle, the ease of growth of this tough shrub has made it an obvious choice. It is also easy to propagate from hardwood cuttings so the common ‘Sibirica’ was popped in in many places as ‘sticks’ in the early stages. Strangely I do not yet have the common ‘Elegantissima’ or ‘Spaethii’ yet – but they will be added. ‘Aurea’ brightens a shady spot and ‘Cream Cracker’ satisfies my need for variegation.

Last year news of a purple-leaved variety caught my attention and it was added this spring. ‘Nightfall’ is different from all other cultivars and has dark purple leaves. They start the year rather green but as they age the leaves turn to inky black. But they seem, so far, to be held more upright than usual and the foliage has a grey cast that has a real presence in the garden. While the leaves are not as dark as I think they finally will be it is very distinctive. I am not sure what will happen in autumn but I hope they turn fiery shades. Because the leaves are so dark the small white flowers, that are usually pretty insignificant, show up surprisingly well.

I popped this into ‘the bed of death’, which this spring was dug over and had lots of manure and compost added. This bed, which saw the demise of so many plants through waterlogging, has done well this year. I put in some suckers of sorbaria ‘Sem’, a young yellow willow rooted from another in the garden and some Diascia personata moved from another bed. All have done really well and the diascia now lolls against the cornus and they make a happy pair. I will report back on the autumn colour.

More details of the cornus are here.

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