Rutgers Professor Invents Dogwood That Blooms In Late May, 'Sparkles' In Sun

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Do you love dogwood trees? These Northeast perennial signs of spring hit peak bloom in April, so by the time Memorial Day weekend rolls around, all dogwood trees are green again.

But one plant scientist at Rutgers University worked hard to change that.

Plant biology professor Thomas Molnar is credited with inventing a new type of dogwood called Scarlet Fire®, a bright pink dogwood that he cultivated to bloom at the end of May.

Molnar invented this dogwood variety to not only bloom later than most, but also for its flowers to be highly reflective to the sun. Molnar said he wants the petals to "dazzle like diamonds" when struck by the sun.

“You can see these trees from a thousand feet away,” said Molnar. “They just glow.”

Scarlet Fire — named, of course, after the Rutgers Scarlet Knights — was invented through "decades" of research by Molnar and his team in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

While tinkering in his lab, Molnar also invented the Stellar Nova™ dogwood variety, a bright white blooming hybrid, and Eternal Scarlet ™, which has pink-red flowers. Eternal Scarlet also blooms for up to six weeks, longer than most dogwoods and hence its name.

All three have been cultivated to bloom in late May.

All of these trees can be seen at the Rutgers Horticultural Farm 3 in East Brunswick, where Molnar works and is open to the public for tours. The original and largest living Scarlet Fire® dogwood can be seen there as well.

Rutgers quietly unveiled Scarlet Fire to select commercial nurseries about five years ago, and saplings of all three Rutgers' dogwood varieties are now sold across the U.S. and Europe. The trees are just coming into maturity this May.

Ed Overdevest, owner of Overdevest Nurseries wholesale plant nursery in Hopewell, said he is excited to introduce the new dogwood variety to home and commercial gardeners. The new tree species add vibrant pinks and reds to gardens in late May — a time when few flowering trees are in bloom, and most trees have turned well, just plain green.

“You can actually get an extension of that spring bloom that everybody loves,” he said.

Many may be surprised to know that New Jersey’s nursery and landscaping industry contributes more than $4 billion to the state’s economy annually.

True to New Jersey's nickname as the Garden State, Rutgers has a robust ecology and horticulture program. Rutgers professors like Molnar are constantly working to invent a new and improved flower, flowering tree, fruit, plant or vegetable.

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Molnar also works on Rutgers' hazelnut breeding program. In 2024, Ferrero Group, the Italian company that makes Nutella and Ferrero Rocher chocolates, gave Molnar and his team a $170,000 research grant to develop hazelnuts that are resistant to eastern filbert blight, a fungal disease that has hindered U.S. hazelnut production. Ferrero said it would like to start sourcing the hazelnuts used in its chocolates from the United States.