Red dogwood

Hi - in the recent torrential rain my red dogwood in an island bed has been trashed and is now half it's height and won't stand upright again. Is it too late to cut all the bent stems (about half the shrub) hard back or shall I stake it? I don't want to kill it off but it can't stay as it is as it looks horrendous and is shading out a lot of lawn. Any ideas please?

are the stems broken or just bent, if they are only bent stake it, if they are broken cut them back

I hadn't thought about the stems being broken - they are all just bent, so I'll do as you suggest and stake them. I was surprised they were so flimsy but the rain was very hard and there's a lot of topgrowth. What a pain this year has turned out to be!

Thanks.

i just keep thinking it might be better tomorrow

Cut them back, you need to cut back red dogwood to keep the red colour anyway, and they are all the better for it.

i always cut mine hard back in early spring so as to enjoy the bare red stems in the winter months