Creme Brulee is my abosolute favorite over my others: moonbeam, dwarf (also a good one, but too small), early sunrise, tequila sunrise, golden showers, and rosea. And that is exactly why I am visiting the forums today. It is a LONG bloomer with wonderful color and leaves. I think it blooms about the same amount as moonbeam, but it is a lighter yellow and much taller & showier. Here are a couple pics of my creme brulee last year. I have bought creme brulee every year since I started my garden in 2004. It never comes back, so I was double checking today to see if it was really hardy in my zone or not. I have just thought of it as an annual and decided whether or not it brings me $6 (or $12 if I get 2!) worth of happiness every summer. Yes, so far, but now that I have done that for so many years, I am unsure. I have never heard about about plants wearing themselves out, but I am not very well educated about these things, so it is a possibility. I certainly have no idea why mine never returned. Although this year oneof my two has a very weak growth of green leaves that may or may not make it. Last year I bought the most beautiful pink coreopsis called sweet dreams. I never planted it because I didn't know where I wanted it and I killed it overwintering it in the house :( sorry for the long post, hope it helps...

C. florida does produce fruits/berries, but they aren't especially prominent features among the leaves, in my experience, unlike those of C. kousa. What it looks like is that at some time while the tree was small, the top was removed (accident, mistaken good intentions, animal, ?) and 3 sprouts grew out from below the break/cut. If, at the time, the 2 on the right looking at the photo had been removed, it MIGHT have grown the remaining one as a new leader, and any lump on the trunk would have been minimal. Looking at the photo, I can see why you might want to try to train it, but it appears to me that the time to do that would have been when it was topped, or shortly thereafter. Doing so now will, IMO, leave a very noticeable lump on the trunk. IF you REALLY do want the dogwood to be taller and only begin to branch at or above the height of the lower branches on the left hand trunk, AND you don't mind the lumpy trunk, then, as I said, you can take the other 2 branches off. The one left will fill out on its right side, and you will have a single-trunked tree, if not an absolutely straight trunk. As Medamana said, C. florida is quite prone to disease, and this WILL give 2 avenues for any disease to enter. It's up to you....

Anything that needs to be coddled doesn't belong in my flowerbeds so I'll pass on Moonbeam--reluctantly--unless I come across it on a markdown table at some point and try it again with that below grade planting. Sienna Sunset didn't come back either but that was definitely my fault so I'll give that one another chance if I find it somewhere. Zagreb has more than outgrown the spot where I originally planted it so that'll get divided this year and planted in a few other spots around the garden.

Ah, OK. Maybe this is what I had read and was remembering. I am in Z7. The Moonbeam I got this year is pretty darn big! The Creme Brulees were quite a bit smaller, and there are three of them. So, maybe what I will do is divide the Moonbeam this fall into three, and I'll have three of each :) It's good to know they will rebound quickly!