The Trees of Minerva Park

Take a short walk to the east of our new community building and you’ll be in the midst of at

least 13 different species of trees, mostly native to Ohio, some planted for landscape and some grown wild (to the best of our knowledge). In the next several months, I will be highlighting the trees of Minerva Park in this newsletter.

I’ll start with Cornus Florida (Flowering Dogwood). Just outside the community building is a beautiful specimen planted in memory of Bea Hulbert, who was an office worker in the community building over 20 years ago. This memorial tree thankfully made it through the construction of the community building in 2022. 

Cornus Florida is native to the eastern U.S., and it is slow growing and often used in landscaping. It is easily grown in average, well-drained soil in full sun and part shade, but prefers rich, acidic soil in part shade and will grow 15-30’. 

The flowers that bloom in early spring (April) are actually tiny, yellowish-green and insignificant, but surrounded by four showy white (or pink) petal-like bracts that give the appearance of a 3-4” flower. Oval, dark green leaves turn attractive shades of red in autumn. The bright red fruits which mature in late summer and persist until late year are inedible (perhaps poisonous) to humans, but birds love them.

The common name is likely due to an old-time use of the hard, slender stems used to make skewers known as dags or dogs.

The Dogwood, when stressed, is susceptible to many diseases, so make sure you use the right plant/right place method of planting!