Alternate-leaf dogwood is native & doesn't suffer from anthracnose. But prb'ly very hard to find as a nursery-grown tree.

You could try 'Eddie's White Wonder', a hybrid between C. florida and the PNW native C. nuttallii - it is very disease resistant although its parents are not. Or there is the Stellar series developed by Rutgers University that are florida x kousa hybrids - Constellation, Aurora, Galaxy, Stellar Pink, Ruth Ellen. These are all extremely disease resistant.

I had heard that nursery raised cornus florida trees are more disease resistant than wild ones.

There would be no reason for nursery grown plants being more resistant, other than artificial selection. If a grafted (clonal) cultivar was selected and propagated because of having been noticed as being resistant, then that particular "nursery grown" plant would be a better bet than random seedlings. Otherwise, unselected seedlings would on the surface be roughly the same mix of resistance and susceptibility as those dug from the wild. (Runts and other discards, perhaps including those with excessive disease susceptibility may have been culled before you are viewing the stock, of course).

Cappiello, Shadow mention in their Timber Press book DOGWOODS that Cornus florida 'Appalachian Spring' was "the only plant to survive the screening" in a Forest Service study:

"The original plant was discovered as a lone survivor from a population growing in Catoctin National Mountain Park, Maryland. All other C. florida specimens in the area had either been killed or severely damaged by dogwood anthracnose."

I just happened to have this page up in another window while reading this post, and since your request was for commercially available...

Here is a link that might be useful: http://greenwoodnursery.com/page.cfm/5012

Note in rokoku's link that Greenwood nursery has Pagoda (Alternate-leaf) dogwood.

Regular Flowering dogwood has less chance of contracting anthracnose if in the open w/good air circulation. But this might conflict w/its preference for some shade, especially in the hot afternoon in warmer zones.

I have 4 wild dogwoods in my yard. One is 25 feet tall.
Last Summer the dogwoods in the yard across the street started dying. And did die. My wild dogwoods are in the front yard and I was worrying that whatever killed the trees across the street would kill mine..I HAD one nursery grown dogwood in the back yard, it WAS at least 300 feet from the dogwoods that died across the street, plus I thought the house was guarding it from whatever killed the other trees. It died of the same disease. I cannot remember what the disease was I did ask a nursery about it. I was told my wild dogwoods were not effected because wild dogwoods have better resistance. Maybe you could find someone who has wild dogwoods that would let you transplant a couple...One of my other Neighbors is allowing me to go into the emense wooded area on his property this spring to take some of his wild dogwoods to plant in my back yard. Remember Wild dogwoods cannot be planted in the middle of the yard unless they are shaded by other mature trees. At least I think wild dogwoods cannot take direct sunlight all day.

I assume you are looking for flowering type dogwoods.
Cornus xrutgersensis 'Rutgan' (Stellar Pink TM) is readily available, and is resistant to both Dogwood anthracnose and powdery mildew.

Whats wrong with Kousas? They are so much hardier than the native dogwoods. I am trying to find Kousas with pink flowers - I wonder if anyone here has any pink Kousa varieties to post.

Nothing wrong with Kousas in my opinion, other than fruit drop, which can be mitigated by planting a single tree (Unfertile fruits are much smaller). Disease resistance of both Kousas and the native variety mentioned above have been shown to vary considerably according to cultivar. As stated above, the Kousa hybrids developed at Rutgers are reliably disease resistant, as are many, though not necessarily all Kousa varieties. Research continues at the University of Tennessee and elsewhere to develop more disease resistant varieties of flowering Dogwood.
Personally, I have planted these pink forms of Kousa:
'Satomi'/ 'Schmred'(Heart Throb (TM)) - these two as well as others may be the same or at least closely related
'Beni Fuji'
'Hanros' (Radiant Rose (TM))
'Fireworks' - don't know for sure if this flowers pink - time will tell.

Also available from a local source is 'Ruby Slippers', as mentioned above. Others include 'Dwarf Pink' and 'Bush's Pink' - I'm sure there are many more to come.

I've seen more than one C. kousa 'Miss Satomi' (as Cappiello & Shadow, DOGWOODS [Timber Press] calls it) with leaf blotch and twig dieback.

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 planted a Rutgers Aurora several years ago ... it survived the locust invasion in its first spring and now is popping out all over. I gave it some shade from a Magnolia I transplanted from Georgia and mixed a lot of compost into our pottery-grade red clay. It is turning into a beautiful tree. Perfect for its spot.

But I still love the way native dogwoods bend and twist at the edge of the woods and put out blooms before leaves (except for this cockamaimy spring).

I'm looking at Appalachian Spring and would appreciate comment from those of you who are growing it. (Even the best nurseries tend to exaggerate the positive).

It is scarce and I'll have to pay an arm and a leg, but maybe by next spring I can get on the waiting list and save the big bucks.

Although this is an old thread, I'll jump in because this question comes up fairly often.

If you are looking for alternatives to cornus florida, consider cornus alternifolia, aka pagoda dogwood, AKA alternative leaf dogwood. These links will provide more info and photos:

http://www.mnpower.com/treebook/fact24.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornus_alternifolia

The NH State Forest Nursery offers a native dogwood package that includes 5 seedlings of 5 different dogwood varieties. The seedlings I received in April are exceptional with excellent root systems. All survived severe changes in weather and are growing like weeds - some are in a nursery bed in nearly full sun, some are in pots under the deck. (I wanted to see what system worked better)

The NH seedling program has more variety than most, does not limit purchases to residents of NH, and the quality is excellent. The price is right too - about $1.00 per plant.

Pam

Here is a link that might be useful: New Hampshire State Nursery