Garden Center could not tell us what was going on (if anything bad) with this young (planted spring of 23) red twig dogwood. Suggested you all. Is there an issue and if so, what do we need to do and when. Thanks
Mary Lou

Hi Mary Lou, 

This looks like Indian Wax Scale . Since they are easy to see and it sounds like the plant size is manageable the safest way to manage them is by hand picking them off. Then you can monitor for new ones the following growing season. There is only one generation a year and they overwinter on the bark so hand picking this season should give you really good control and you shouldn't need to do much picking the following year. 

Since the plant is so new it may be that it was planted with the scale and it went unnoticed or there is a heavy infestation on a nearby plant. You may want to check other plants around where you planted this one to make sure they don't also have scale. 

Let us know if you have further questions on how to manage this pest or other issues. 

Emily