N. Doyle of Brooklyn, New York writes in:

 ”I used to see in Kentucky many pink and white dogwoods planted together and growing together as one tree–one side pink, on white. They didn\’t look grafted, but rather two tees growing as one. Can I just plant two trees and tie their trunks (loosely) together? Anything else I should do? Thanks ”

I’m not sure what the grower did. It sounds like they may have caused two young trees to merge through tieing and grafting while young. In my opinion this may not form the best longterm growth patterns for the trees. If the graft point isn’t strong, the tree can be open to splits, cracks and other breaks. You might check with a local arborist in your area to see if s/he can help you find a grafted tree or help you form one to fit your needs. Also, you might want to look at the Cornus x ‘Stellar’ series for dogwood trees that aren’t as disease prone as the Cornus florida.

As well, sometimes a specialized tree or shrub variety will “revert” to its parent form. It could be that the tree was grown as a pink dogwood but sent off a shoot that reverted to the white form or had a root graft that was white. And, the white portion was a shoot from this root stock at some point. If the original or stronger branches aren’t removed many shrubs will look spotty or two-sided this way. It could have been this as well.

Thanks for writing in!