Q: We have a variegated red-twig dogwood that's 12 years old. Tonight on our walk around the property, my wife and I noticed some brown leaves. When we looked inside, we saw a white powdery substance ...

Context Explanation

I've been seeing some really nice bushes with red branches that stick up from the ground. A friend told me they're red-twig dogwoods. Are they very easy to grow? Red-twigs are at their best in winter ...

Insight Material

HeraldNet: Red twig dogwoods — there’s variety of shrub for all seasons The red-twig dogwood (Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’), also known as the cream-edge Tatarian dogwood, is a pleasant shrub that offers so much to central Ohio gardens. The 21/2-inch medium gray-green ... It isn’t every day that a plant comes along that will grow just about anywhere and has some interesting feature every season of the year. But that’s just exactly what our Northwest native red twig ... Variegated plants are some of the most beautiful and fascinating specimens available for our homes and gardens.

Final Conclusion

Instead of solid-colored foliage, variegated plants' leaves are adorned with spots, splotches, stripes, or edges in at least one contrasting color. 1. Having streaks, marks, or patches of a different color or colors; varicolored: a plant with variegated leaves. 2. Distinguished or characterized by variety; diversified: her variegated experience. Variegated plants are the showstoppers of the plant world—the ones that make you stop mid-scroll and say, “okay… I need that.” With their streaks of creamy white, splashes of yellow, and marbled greens, no two leaves are ever exactly alike.

That unpredictability is exactly what makes them so addictive to collectors. But behind the beauty, there’s a little more going on than just good ...