First, get an accurate ID of the problem by sending a sample to your local forest extension office. Look into the cornus florida cultivar 'Appalachian Spring' which is reportedly very resistant to athracnose and the many cornus kousa cultivars, some of which, also boast of resistance to the disease. 1) 'Appalachian Spring' is the only native c. florida I would plant nearby if athracnose is confirmed as the disease. I would consider the other cultivars and seed grown trees as an experiment. 2) See comment #1 3) Most likely, yes. 4) cornus kousa would be the most similar dogwood with some resistance to athracnose. There are many fantastic kousa cultivars WRT flower abundance, color, bark, and variegation. 'Milky Way' and 'Wolf Eyes' are probably my favorite. I had a chance to see several different cultivars in flower at a botanic garden in Maine. The most spectacular tree flowering at the time was Aesculus x carnea 'Ft. McNair' and it wasn't even close! I personally think you should diversify your plantings so you don't lose a whole group of trees like you did this time. Good luck! John Edit: They also had a prostrate dogwood they used as a groundcover in one of their beds. Now that was NEAT and something I had never seen before! This post was edited by j0nd03 on Fri, Feb 15, 13 at 11:27

Alabama, I ordered Welch's Jr. Miss several years ago and received a spindly little bitty thing that promptly died. If they had sent a more robust one, it may have lived, but I'm not going to try that one again. I love the pictures I see of the red-flowering ones, but the nurseries even admit they won't do on the Gulf Coast. Even though they can be trouble, the small, flowering trees are too beautiful for me to give up on entirely! That's interesting about Eddie's White Wonder, Gardengal48 - if the "48" in your forum names stands for your year of birth, then you and I are the same age. I think I'll order EWW - FF sells it in the tube size, which is affordable. Depending on which zone map you look at, I'm in Zone 8 or on the line between Zone 8 and 9 - I'm a weather nut, and the cold temps I hear about in Seattle and Portland are colder than what I get here, so I don't think cold will be a problem. I'll be sure and plant it in a spot with ample air flow and a good bit of sun. Sherry

Time to come outta the doghouse, for a little while... I stopped at a Homie Depot yesterday to get some things, and they had their first batch of trees and shrubs outside. A quick look found some young Cornus Florida trees, and lo and behold, the branches were on the reddish side. Not quite as red as some on the tree-like shrub I have, but also not as brown as most trees. So, I feel as vindicated as a Vinny can be in referring to this thing I have as a Dogwood tree, as it is definitely a tree-like shape and it is a Dogwood. I'll probably dig it up and move it to the back this spring, when the ground thaws. In the meantime, I'll make a separate post to find a better looking replacement to look for. Thanks for the enlightening replies! vince

Please forgive my recent absence. Due to recent personal issues I've been been unable to participate and am now slowly trying to catch up on things. I still reject all ideas about chemicals, herbicides, salt water intrusion, etc. The distribution pattern does not correlate. To recap slightly, what I'm seeing (though I've not been out much lately) is vast normal areas of seemingly healthy trees in which one comes across single dead trees widely spaced--mostly oaks, but other species, too--and most alarmingly, groups (4-7) of dead trees. As anyone who lives around here knows, Oaks are the vast majority of existing trees in central Florida so it's no surprise that even if multiple species are uniformly affected, it would be Oaks that bear the brunt of the effect and suffer in greater numbers. (As soon as I get a chance I will try to make and post a video and will put a notice about it here.) Sometimes, the group will have other nearby individual dead trees very close around it... such as 4 adjacent dead trees, and within 500' of them, 4 or 5 more. Recently, of a group of a dozen or so palms, I noticed 3 adjacent ones, fresh dead. Another symptom that may or may not be related... I'm seeing many trees that from a distance look healthy, but have tip sections (approx. 3'-6') of branches that are flat dead. Some of these trees may have 3 such dead branches (as viewed from one side). Some may have a dozen. I'm in eastern Hillsborough County. Yesterday, I went to Brandon (a more urban/suburban area) and over there I did not see as many dead trees and dead branch tips. But there were some. Also, recently, I happened upon a land owner who was affected by dead trees so inquired as to what he knew. He was adamant that the death was caused by beetles. He claimed to obtain this information from someone who would know about such things, but our conversation was hectic as he was in the middle of work activity requiring his focus. And I had little time then, too, so was not able to get more information. However, I can believe that such a theory is far more likely than any chemical-based theory. I could imagine how beetles could move into an area and quickly distribute themselves on an adjacent group of trees. And on some other nearby trees. And then fly off to trees one-quarter mile away and do it all again. I can imagine, too, that they could do this in concert with some weather/climate phenomenon and seemingly "burst" upon the scene as a sudden catastrophe... such as the periodic "herds of locusts." They could do damage directly or be the carrier of disease a la the well known Dutch Elm Disease. However, I'm not in a position to research this information first-hand and there seems to be a lack of it coming through official channels. When I fist reported it here it was extremely new (to this area) so stood a good chance of not yet being noticed or having anyone ascertain its degree of impact. The overall distribution of this condition... what may or may not exist beyond my area, is unknown to me. Maybe we are the "epicenter." Or maybe this is just old stuff finally working its way through this area from other parts of Florida. I'm surprised that it is does not yet seem to be a major local news story or that definitive information is not coming forth via official channels. Then again, I've been out of commission for more than two weeks.