This picture had to be in 1984 or '85. And as you may know Banbury is loaded with Dogwoods. About that time in history the Dogwood blight was severe and lots of them died. When we had time we would go around cutting all the dead ones down. I think in two years we cut down about 250 of them. Luckily the Robertsons realized this was happening and before they gave the property to the Lab they had several hundred Kousa Dogwoods planted. These are Japanese Dogwoods that are resistant to all the things that the native Flowering Dogwoods are susceptible to. We still have these blights, but they aren't as severe as years ago. Dr. Watson loves the Dogwoods, so we try to plant lots of them here, although they do have a high mortality rate.
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