Wild Collected Cornus kousa flowers fading to pink/red

This young dogwood has been growing in the Asian Collections at the USNA for about 15 years but has never looked especially vigorous. Last year (2013) that changed. The leaves took on a better color, there were more of them, and the tree didn't shed small branches as it had over the past 4-5 years. Sometimes it takes a while for a plant to acclimate to a site. Fifteen years seems like a long time, but this site, soilwise, isn't the greatest so I'm just happy that it's finally happy!

This spring it had a few more flowers than the smattering it had produced heretofore and the bracts assumed this intense color as they aged. There must be a genetic component but the question is, will it continue to do this? It's possible that the color is primarily a result of environmental conditions. We had a remarkably wet spring/early-summer last year, a very cold winter, and a late spring. We'll watch next spring to see what happens.