When is it best to cut back your dogwood tree.?

Question

When is the best time and how is it done.

Answer 1

in the fall time when its lost its leafs.

Answer 2

As is true with most plants/trees, the best time is when the sap/ or whatever fluid name you wish to give the substance of a plants life,,, has gone dormant.

That can be from the time leaves fall (depending on your location) to just before Spring, or new growth begins. (Plants begin to wake up.)

I prefer February here in FL because by then any dead branches/stems/ leaves, etc. are evident or have fallen away. It also allows that the new growth gets a better start, often branching from the ara of pruning.

How it's done,,,or rather why you want to is confusing to me, unless you want to control its height and shape ornamentaly.

I wouldn't prune a dogwood other than to remove dead material, but certainly any pruning shouldn't be deeply graphic. Consider this abstract analogy. An ingrown toenail for example need not mean that a leg has to be amputated.

Steven Wolf