We usually remember the dogwood blossoms as showy flowers with white petals. But that is not how they start out. When they first emerge they are green. The little green balls in the center seem overpowering in their presence, and the green bracts that will soon pass for petals look like only an afterthought.
![IMG_2990[1]](https://www.pubwages.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_29901.jpg)
In time the green bracts grow bigger and whiter, and if you are naive, you will exclaim: “Oh, look the dogwood is blossoming!” But that would be premature.
![IMG_3151[1]](https://www.pubwages.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_31511.jpg)
This is a yellow jacket who is a predatory wasp. He is no here for the pollen. He is hunting tiny insects even smaller than himself.
![IMG_3426[1]](https://www.pubwages.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_34261.jpg)
Can you see the single open green flower at the center of the dogwood blossom?
![IMG_3428[1]](https://www.pubwages.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_34281.jpg)
One by one each of the little green flowers in the center will open.
![IMG_3774[1]](https://www.pubwages.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_37741.jpg)
Then, after their pollen has nearly been spent, the leaves of the dogwood tree appear.
![IMG_3777[1]](https://www.pubwages.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_37771.jpg)
As the flowers age, the bracts start to wither. You can see this process take place at different rates in different blossoms.
![IMG_3778[1]](https://www.pubwages.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_37781.jpg)
In time the white bracts will drop off completely, so that what we have left are the genuine, miniature green flowers in the center.
![IMG_3792[1]](https://www.pubwages.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_37921.jpg)
In the fall the little berry-like red drupes of the dogwood will be all that remains of the flowers.
Dogwoods are a special flower where I grew up in the San Bernardino Mountains. There is one place known as the Dogwood Trail, which had trees with giant dogwood flowers. Each spring many classes would go on hikes on the dogwood trail, and in Kindergarten we made ceramic dogwoods, and our teacher had us use marbles for the center. I still have the ceramic dogwood flower I made many years ago. Well my mom has it, but I love this piece of nostalgia from my childhood.
I’m glad you have fond memories concerning dogwoods in the San Bernardino Mountains. As I am not native to the Ozarks, it took me a while to even recognize the difference between a redbud and a dogwood tree. It is great that your mother still has the ceramic dogwood you made in kindergarten. You should post a picture of it sometime. It sounds like a great art project for small children.
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