Hello, I have a flowering dogwood I am trying to save from my boxer's attempt of killing it. Last fall this tree stood about 4ft tall and through the winter my boxer puppy started bitting off the branches. I thought I could teach her to leave it alone (wrong) but she got every last branch and at that point I thought it was a goner and so I just let her use it as a chew toy. She got the main trunk down to about 1ft. This spring I pulled it out so I could put in a new tree and the roots looked great, I checked under the bark and amazingly it was green, so I planted it into a pot to see if I could get it to grow and sure enough a few weeks later a few buds started sprouting from the trunk. I have now planted it back in the yard and it is doing great, although it now looks like a small shrub. My question is should I cut all of the branches off except one that will become the new trunk or do I just let it grow as is? I am not sure if the main trunk will gain height with it being severed and all. Thanks for any advice.
Hi sweetft5, It sounds like you have quite a rehab project on you hands. I think that if I were you, I'd just let the poor little thing grow and put on every last little bit of green growth it can for now, and worry about shaping it back into more of a tree and less of a shrub later on. It may develop an obvious secondary "leader" with the first one destroyed, or perhaps you can choose from several candidates once it has become stronger. JMHO, someone else may have other advice.
