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I am building a dogwood dividing hedge, During the summer, I planted a batch of container-grown red and yellow stalked varieties, and at the end of December, finally took delivery (due to mild Autumn) of some bare-rooted varieties. I belive that the earlier planted varieties need pruning hard in Spring, but my books refer to "well-established plants"
Does this mean that I should not prune the bare-rooted plants this year?

Personally I would prune them.

Think of them as hedging plants. An old nurserymen(tree and shrub) on an Estate where I once worked in Shropshire recomended cutting all hedging plants back to one foot when you plant them. The idea is to give plenty of root to shoot ratio. It also encourages them to bush out. All those people you see with bare bottomed hedges did not do this!

With Dogwood I cut back really low. Remember the cuttings may well root easily if you plant them.

The more top there is the harder work it is for the roots.

I have an old book somewhere which mentions a guy who grew an especially thick thorn hedge. He cut it down to the ground six years in succession before allowing it to grow. If you want a decent hedge, you really do need to coppice it, and in the case of thorn at least, repeat the process once a generation or so, or whenever it gets thin at the base.

RIGHT! - I will cut with confidence, Many thanks

The more you prune the better the colour!   8)

Feed with blood fish and bone too. These are hungry plants.

And if you stick the cuttings in the ground they'll give you even more plants for free... They root very easy from winter cuttings