Offering year-round colour and interest, this tough and undemanding shrub can be used as a stand-alone specimen, an informal screen, or an eye-catching addition to mixed borders.

Each spring, the new foliage of Cornus alba Miracle emerges with a bright pink flush, but this soon fades to reveal the leaves green and cream variegations. These add tonal interest to mixed planting schemes throughout the summer, but in the autumn, the leaves start to develop reddish tints again, and these intensify as the season progresses. Therefore, before they are shed at the end of the growing season (and before the skeleton of bright red stems is revealed), the leaves are often an intense shade of purple-pink.