Gray dogwood is a great wildlife plant. Mine are spreading a little wider than I wanted them to though. Be sure you allow plenty of room. They sucker.

grey dogwood likes wet its native to your area and its abundant. If you take a trip out to the country find a wet area near the side of the road or wetland border type area you can dig up one or two...nature will not miss them. I have so many I cant get rid of them mind you, I have an 8 acre wetland..I would not try to buy one of these at the nursery they are not worth the money you'll pay for them. Especially when they are so common in nature. If you cant find one I can try to collect seed from some of mine. there was seed on some just a week ago.

Considering that I'm in NJ z6B and I bought it on April 1, I'm going to assume it was grown where many potted trees from this garden center come from - Tennessee or similar region. With that being said, I ensured that there was no growth and the plant was still fully dormant when I bought it. It was not rootbound but I did break up the rootball a bit and pull out any swirling roots to avoid future issues. I could throw a thin blanket around it I guess...I have no burlap or horticultural wraps. But won't a few inches of wet snow load build up on it and bend the poor thing down? I could just keep my eye on it and go out there if needed. I guess my question really is this: What I have read about spring frost is that it uses up the energy the plant has, but if the plant isn't stressed or sick, it will resprout new leaves by June. But you guys are always talking about freshly planted trees being stressed (for obvious reasons). So is the fact that this thing was potted and just had its rootball broken up enough stress that it wouldn't be able to put out a second flush of growth when this stuff dies? Clearly I'm going to find out one way or another. There's a 1 year warranty so it's fine. Just trying to learn and understand as best I can.

tree seed production varies year to year.. decade to decade ... the bounty years are referred to as mast years ... http://www.mast-producing-trees.org/2009/11/what-is-mast/ some years i am buried in acorns .. and then for a few years.. seems like nothing... which i presume means what little there was. ... was foraged by the local wildlife ... just enough info to get you researching further ... if you want.. ken ps: i gotta tell someone.. lol .. i have 2 squirrels screaming at each other .. during all daylight hours .... fighting over the 5 oak trees in the middle of my driveway ... im like dudes... cant we all just get along ... this has been going on for about 10 days now.. and i am starting to think about looking up recipes ... on top of all that ... there is some idiot chipmunk on the ground.. who feels he must chip in on the noise level [see what i did there.. lol] ... perhaps thinking no one is aware of the 2 idiots above him .... the peacefulness of nature.. pshaw ...