My dogwood has brown blotches on the leaves and is dying back. What's wrong?

Brown blotches with purple margins on a flowering dogwood, combined with branch dieback, point to dogwood anthracnose (Discula destructiva) — a serious fungal disease that has devastated native flowering dogwoods, particularly in cool, moist, shaded settings.

Signs of dogwood anthracnose:

• Tan leaf spots with purple rims, often starting on lower and interior leaves
• Blighted leaves that cling to the tree instead of dropping
• Dieback of twigs and branches, progressing from the bottom up
• Cankers on branches and the main trunk in advanced cases
• Excessive "water sprouts" along the trunk

Management approach:

1. Improve air movement and light — selectively thin surrounding vegetation; the disease thrives in damp shade.
2. Avoid overhead watering and water in the morning so foliage dries quickly.
3. Prune out dead/cankered wood in dry weather, disinfecting tools between cuts.
4. Rake and destroy fallen leaves each fall.
5. For high-value trees, preventive fungicides (e.g., chlorothalonil) applied at budbreak can help.
6. When replanting, choose resistant kousa dogwoods (Cornus kousa) or resistant hybrids like the 'Stellar' series.

If more than half the canopy has died back, recovery is unlikely. A certified arborist can assess whether the tree is worth saving.