Read all the comments about purchase of a dogwood. Very interesting. I live in Ontario, west of Toronto, and want to plant a dogwood in my woodland garden. Native dogwood grow on my property. The area is rocky, and well drained so I know that I will need to amend the soil for moisture retention. My question is has anyone had luck with a Wolf Eye Dogwood, Cornus Kousa Chinensis"wolf eye' It was recommended to me because it has varigate leaves, larger white flowers, and fall color. When I visit the nursery I get mixed info. Some say it has been a poor performer....others just don't have it. They are few and far between. As I have been clearing trees in this forest by my house, to have a woodland garden, I dont want a large tree. This one is only suppose to grow 15' or so. Our zone is 4-5. I live in a protected spot, treed, in a valley. All info, much appreciated. Lee

Hi Folks! any of you had planted a Cornus angustata Empress of China  'Elsbry' PPAF ? It's true that it's disease resistance?I am going to plant this fall,it suppose to be evergreen dogwoods that I am fascinated to plant it in my fantasy garden...,I purchased it from Wayside Gardens.The problem is it seems like the said evergreen looks like no match with a cruel stages of shipping.One is looks Ok and the other one it's looks like a dried raisin from the top up to down the mid bottom parts of tree.I wrote an email and they said it is on dormant or shock stage and it will be soon recover after planting. But I think there's a very fine line between dormancy and dehydrated.Dormant plant take a slow process of changing and dropping leaves while dehydrated plants from extreme weather is being dried suddenly and never have much chance to store energy to go on dormant.Like a natural death has a big different between a causes of a sudden accident death. Anyhow I agreed to gave the plants a chance to be planted and monitor it until spring.My question is any of you had experienced planting a dehydrated dogwoods and survive in a harsh weather of fall and winter? Once I tried planting a cornus venus also from mail order source and it also dried up none of 3 of them never thrive and I end up wasting my 270 dollars for the price of 3.Now I replaced variety with the hope that this one will do much better but '' the said evergreen it's disappointed me the way I look at it is half way dying I can even make it a perfect everlasting tree.I think even it survive it might not gain a normal height and size due to it was deterred from grow.If the roots is alive I might get it grow by a sucker not from a main trunk. Now it still in a pot I placed it in my garage that received a sunlight but not directly,I leave it there for a few days to adjust the environment before planting.Any of you have any idea or suggestion about care after planting? or had experienced planting halfway dying dogwood and it survive? I knew my planting site is fine and the soil is good coz I've loaded it with many trucks load of top soil.I felt planting this trees is a crap shot but I'll just tried. I appreciated any comment or suggestion about this and thanks in advance!

I am a little cooler than you in zone 7 but even though everything else is leafing out here, the tiny buds on my shumard are just starting to increase is size. If I hadn't been checking daily, it would not even be noticeable. Was it late enough in fall that it was normal defoliation? Leafed out at my house- Post Oak, Southern Red Oak, Blackjack Oak, Willow Oak, Cottonwood, Red and Silver Maples, Mockernut Hickory, Winged Elm, Slippery/American Elm (I can't tell them apart), White and Green Ash, Tulip Poplar, crabapples, dogwoods, Live Oak is putting out leaves as of Saturday. Yet to leaf out is my Sycamore, Shumard Oak, Swamp White Oak, and Nuttall Oak but all have been in the ground less than a year with the last two planted about 3 weeks ago.

rockman, as I understand it...cornus kousa is resistant to many diseases but it's been awful wet this spring with virtually no warm sunshine to dry things out. I found this South Carolina info sheet...do any of the things described sound like what's happening to your Mom's dogwood? Here is a link that might be useful: Clemson Extension/Home & Garden Info Center/Flowering Dogwoods