An older gentelmen down the road has a 4' Pagoda in full sun, but as you mentioned you has a bunch of smaller shrubs and perrenials surrounding the tree...seems to be doing pretty good. How is your Satomi? I have a Wolf Eyes and I am debating whether to add a Satomi or Pagoda to my landscape. The Satomi seems more ornamental but Pagoda seems to tolerate more sun and has a nicer habit. The tree would be partially protected from winds, but will still get a decent amount of sun...but in time (5 years or so) will started to get some shade from an Oak I planted.

bboy -- I really appreciate your help. I don't meant to sound like an idiot, but the truth is that this is the first house I have ever owned and therefore it is my first experience with gardens, lawns, and trees. I grew up in Tennessee where the dogwood is so popular and I really hope this tree lives. I am trying to read and learn all I can, but I am befuddled by the wilted leaves. When I looked at the roots of the tree this morning, I dug up the top dirt then stuck my finger deeper into the middle of the roots (I don't really know how to check inside the original rootball -- it is too dense for me to get my fingers in). The roots are surprisingly close to the surface of the ground, but the dirt around the roots was wet -- not sopping wet, but definitely moist. It rained pretty hard here yesterday, but we have been in a severe drought for months. One thing I failed to mention, the ground here is impossibly hard, red clay. It is a real killer to dig a hole in my yard. My husband had to come help me and he dug a giant hole for this dogwood and filled it with good soil, but there is a wall of red clay around the area we created. I fear that the red clay is acting like a bowl and holding the water around the roots. I am wondering if I should watch the tree for a few weeks -- checking the soil for the need for water (rather than watering on schedule) and if the tree starts to look worse -- like it is dying, I can dig it up and make an even bigger hole for it and put rocks and perlite to help with drainage. It sounds like the leaves wilting is not necessarily something to worry about (if it is common for Dogwoods to fold up their leaves with the onset of hot weather). Again, thank you for your help!

Heather, I think you're on the right track in thinking that if you can acidify the soil the plant is growing in a bit, the colors may go back to being pink for next year. I'm not sure that adding sulphur will help this year's bracts because I don't know if they can change colors once they've emerged. If your soil pH is close to neutral, pink dogwoods sometimes do have white blooms but sometimes revert back to pink blooms if you can get the soil pH below about 6.5. The only other thing I can think of is that pink dogwoods are notoriously difficult to raise from seed, so it is likely yours was budded/grafted onto a rootstock of the more common white-flowering dogwood. If that were true, if the dogwood ever froze back to an area down below the graft, the pink dogwood portion would be dead and new growth would come from the white dogwood portion. This sometimes happens with various kinds of grafted trees, including fruit trees. However, I think you would have noticed if your tree froze back and regrew from the ground and since you didn't mention that occurring, I'm going to assume it didn't occur and that you're just dealing with a soil pH that is too high to guarantee pink blooms. It also would help if you feed it regularly with a fertilizer geared towards plants that prefer acidic conditions. Espoma's Holly-Tone or any fertilizer labeled for camellias and azaleas would be fine for that. Dawn

In the second picture the driveway is just out of sight up on the left. All you see when on the driveway is the top of the tree. Next to the Kousa is a clump of live Miscanthus that is barely visible in the picture. It hides the dead grass from the driveway. Since the Satomi is next to the driveway it is not in a really obscure location but it is halfway to the house from the entry gate which is 420 ft from the house and 990 ft. from the road. Curb appeal is a low priority. ;-) With 10 acres to garden on, a lot of it is in obscure places. The garden is more refined closer to the house. There is just me working in the garden. My wife doesn't garden at all. Never did. The only time she goes outside is to get in the car and go shopping. ;-) I love her. We've been married almost 43 years. Mike aka Jack Sprat