Cornus sanguinea ”Midwinter Fire”
From Cinderella to Belle of The Ball
This article by Adrian Bloom appeared in the RHS Plant Review in 2023
We owe many of our favourite garden plants to chance discoveries, and the further back in time they were first seen, the more tenuous the true facts become. A year ago in this magazine, I wrote about the discovery of Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ (see []), first discovered near the town of Anna, Ohio USA in the early 1700s. Not many can remember back that far!
For Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ we only need to go back ‘around 40 years’. Not only in living memory, but the finder Harry Venhorst is still with us and is able to recount his story. Harry owned a landscaping company and nursery Fa. Venhorst and Zonen in the Netherlands province of Gelderland. The family business was located in the village of Megchelen in a narrow enclave close to the German border. Looking back more than 40 years, Harry was undertaking some maintenance in one of the private gardens and being observant, he could hardly miss spotting a Cornus seedling with bright orange yellow stems. He was allowed to remove it and started to propagate by cuttings.
Boskoop in Holland, with over 600 nurseries, was the centre of the hardy nursery Stock Industry, and at that time Harry van der Laar from the Boskoop Experimental Station was the man to go to, to consider whether this seedling was a unique discovery. It was unknown to the expert van der Laar who suggested Harry Venhorst give the plant a name, propagate it and introduce it as a new introduction. But production was not Harry Venhorst’s main business and this plant didn’t fit his plans. But Harry had a friend, Wout van den Dool, who was very interested to propagate stock and introduce the new Cornus. And apparently it was Wout who came up with the very appropriate name of ‘Midwinter Fire’.
The rest as they say is history. But before bringing the Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ up to date, let’s look back.
Cornus sanguinea Midwinter Fire in the Winter Garden at Bressingham, 20 years after planting
Going native, the species Cornus sanguinea
To understand the future, it is helpful to look at the past. So that is where we start a fascinating trail of following Cornus sanguinea, a European native shrub with seemingly little garden potential. We, as British, tend to claim ownership of plants that are native to our Islands as in ‘Our (British) Common Dogwood’. Which is also true, even though this shrub is widespread throughout Europe, even extending to eastern Asia.
This is in part a personal story and I have found the shrubby, winter coloured bark on the stems of selections the Cornus to be such useful and now indispensable plants for winter colour that it has long been a fascination as to how origins and species fit into place. For instance, in my early days as a nurseryman and gardener it seemed little attention was paid to this European native which seemed to have no selections or cultivars. In the first Hillier Manual published in 1971 (kindly signed by a young Roy Lancaster when I visited Jermyns in January the following year) it was described
“Cornus sanguinea. “The Common Dogwood”. Our native hedgerow species, greenish, red flushed stems and rich autumn colour. Fruits black and bitter to the taste.”
Not exactly a ringing endorsement. With underwhelming autumn leaf colour and reddish stems where facing the sun, it seemed hardly a desirable garden plant. At that time, it was nowhere on my list of ‘must have’ plants. Of course, as most of us know some of the Cornus are the most valuable of small garden trees and flowering shrubs, and those with attractive and colourful stems were popular. Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ with startling red winter stems and the form C. a. ‘Sibirica Variegata’ were, and are, both garden worthy and given their Siberian origins, undoubtedly hardy.
One of my favourites is the golden-yellow leaved C. a. ‘Aurea’, and still not as widely grown as it should be is the black stemmed C. a. ‘Kesselringii’. That name probably hasn’t helped the popularity of this selection which originated as a seedling in the St Petersburg Botanic Garden in Russia in 1907. I often think had it been named ‘Black Magic’ it would have been more popular and widely known.
Cornus sericea is a similar North American species, which for many years was listed in the 1971 Hiller Manual and elsewhere as Cornus stolonifera, the most notable is C. s. ‘Flaviramea’ with yellow winter stems. Now, many more cultivars have been added, C. s. ‘Bud’s Yellow’, the bright golden leaved C. s. ‘Sunshine’ and variegated C. s. ‘Hedgerow’s Gold’.
Researching through various books, Oliver Rackham’s Ancient Woodland makes reference to Cornus sanguinea in Bradfield Woods in Suffolk. On a winter visit to those fascinating ‘ancient’ woods, the Common Dogwood seemed hidden from my view, but later I did spot some clumps in a late summer visit to the Peak District and also in winter in the Karst region of Eastern Slovenia. The species is widespread and native to the UK as well as most countries in Europe, but its use is still as a hedgerow and landscape plant. We have to thank Harry Venhorst for discovering one of the most striking plants for winter colour and setting in chain the several outstanding cultivars we now have to choose from.But of course he wasn’t the only Dutchman to find a special seedling.
Cornus growing wild in Slovenia
Cornus sanguinea growing wild in the UK
The Cornus Confusion
Always on the look out for new plants, I attended the Boskoop Floranova Exhibition in February 1987 and was much taken by the display of the glowing orange yellow stems of a new shrub named Cornus sanguinea ‘Winter Beauty’. It arose apparently as a seedling on the nursery of Andre Nijnatten in 1982. Not to waste any time, I soon made a trip to southern Holland to Andre’s Nursery. I’m glad to say Andre’s halting English was somewhat better than my non-existent Dutch and we had a fascinating look at his colourful field-grown plants. Later we made an agreement to introduce ‘Winter Beauty’ to the British market from 1990 (which I was told was the first and only a provisional name for ‘Winter Flame’). So, unknowingly we introduced it as ‘Winter Flame’, eventually causing much confusion within the horticultural trade and public alike. This somewhat convoluted story is covered in some depth by plantsman Chris Sanders in an excellent article in The Plantsman (December 2005). What Chris and I both agree on is that some of Andre Nijnatten’s introductions are distinct and colourful enough to merit their own name. I refer to ‘Magic Flame’ and ‘Anny’s Winter Orange’ more later.
Cornus sanguinea ‘Winter Beauty’ (‘Winter Flame’) vs. Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’
In our Bressingham Gardens Autumn 1990 catalogue we took up a full page to extol this seeming breakthrough in Cornus sanguinea and in a sunny position in Foggy Bottom it fulfilled its promise, glowing in the garden from wherever seen. The Common Dogwood was not so common anymore. In March 1992, Stefan Buksacki came to do a piece on winter colour for BBC Gardeners’ World, one part of which was he and I standing next to my group of Cornus sanguinea ‘Winter Beauty’. A couple of weeks later, we opened Foggy Bottom to the public. Three thousand people turned up. A great response but 6000 feet on damp grass left parts of the garden almost a mud bath.
At the end of the day, everyone had left. We were back in our home looking out the window as the light was going. From the window, 100 yards away we spotted a figure amid the bed containing the Cornus. Rushing out to investigate, we caught a man with stems of the Cornus in his hand. Catching him literally red-handed as he had cut himself, he was startled and covered in blood (well a slight exaggeration!), in confusion. He had been overcome by the plant he wanted to have in his garden, his wife waiting in the only car left in the meadow. I had sharp words and felt as he was suitably ‘caught in an act’ he was unlikely to repeat. Ironically, although it was now closed, we had plants of the Cornus available for sale in our nearby garden centre.
I tell that story as an illustration of how dramatic such a colour can be in the long, dark days of winter and how many “Wows” are expressed when people see the large drift of Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ in the Winter Garden at The Bressingham Gardens.
In 1990, Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ came onto the market, proving itself a much easier plant to grow and propagate than ‘Winter Beauty’, so by 1994 it was decided not to proceed with promotion of this plant. In agreement with Andre Nijnatten, we discontinued the protection with Plant Breeders Rights
1985 Winter in Foggy Bottom. Cornus alba Siberia on the left and Cornus sanguinea Winter Beauty..
First display in Holland of Cornus Winter Beauty
A first class choice for gardeners
Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ is well known, easy to propagate and provides (as the pictures show) dramatic and vibrant winter colour in any garden... at least where given an open position in a garden or landscape. The more exposed to sun and good winter drainage the brighter winter stems will be, as long as they are pruned back each year. We now are certain that this was discovered, not bred, by Harry Venhorst in or around 1980.
More selections were made by Andre Nijnatten. Although his first selection ‘Winter Beauty’ is a good plant, it has perhaps been rather superseded by the similarity and greater availability of ‘Midwinter Fire’. But Andre was not a man to rest on his laurels (or his Cornus) and selected at least two outstanding plants, both of which have much deeper coloured winter stems. Cornus sanguinea ‘Magic Flame’ is pictured and has excellent and long-lasting autumn leaf colour and bright crimson red tipped winter stems. The other Cornus considered by many to be the best is ‘Anny’s Winter Orange’, closer in colour to ‘Magic Flame’ than ‘Midwinter Fire’ in having a deeper orange yellow stem colour and red tips. Both these are vigorous growers and when established, will send out useful suckers. I say useful as once you realise how colourful and heart- rather than hand-warming these plants can be, you will want to plant or pot more up, or give one to a friend or neighbour.
Cornus sanguinea Midwinter Fire shown in different locations at Bressingham
Managing your special “Common Dogwood”
We tend to forget that since we nearly always see one of these Cornus sanguinea as a pruned shrub, that if left unpruned it will eventually make a small tree. It is such a plant I have in my garden, Foggy Bottom, which is now a bushy shrub 4–5 metres tall. And as a shrub it has some merits. Covered in corymbs of white flowers in summer, pale blue berries in autumn alongside gold to light yellow leaves for many weeks, then after leaf fall orange-brown twigs throughout the winter.
One source I checked said Cornus sanguinea and cultivars were not suitable for growing in containers. I’m not sure where that information came from, but from my experience it is just the opposite, and certainly plants do very well in pots. As with many plants, they need a few principles to be followed. Pot on each year until you get to the size of container you want or can handle. I have found the largest I can use is a 50 litre and you can see my plant pictured. Stand it outside, not far from your back (or front) door, ideally in a sunny situation. Prune back hard in spring just as new shoots appear, feed with a slow-release fertiliser and continue to water well throughout the spring, summer, and autumn.
I grow mine in a terracotta pot which drains well, meaning if in doubt you can never over water in summer. Initially you could combine with the black leaved Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ with a dash of a cheerful snowdrop such as Galanthus nivalis ‘S. Arnott’.
There is some work involved, but a great reward to enjoy for months if not years.
Cornus Midwinter Fire ready for prunning in early Spring
Cornus Midwinter Fire showing excellent Autumn colour
Winter stems of Cornus Midwinter Fire
The WOW factor !!
We all strive for Winter colour in the garden and this view of the Winter Garden at Bressingham shows what can be achieved.
Outstanding plants are: the bright yellow conifer Ibis nordmanniana Golden Spreader, the silvery white stems of Betula apoiensis Mount Apoi and behind the glow of Cornus sanguinea Midwinter Fire.
All photographs for this feature were taken by Adrian Bloom