What is your location and soil type?

If you're at least Zone 5B I'd go with a Paper Bark Maple. The metallic peeling bark, vivid fall color and airy texture make for a great focal point.

If you're 5A or lower then you'd have to go with one of the hybrids. Shaved Chocolate and Bronze Tablet have superior bark characteristics over GIngerbread and Molly Fordham.

Although not that airy, my next choice is Seven Son Flower but you have to hand pick your specimen for form or least pick it based on its form potential. White blooms late August when very little is blooming and then the seeds turn a vivid deep pink as if the tree is blooming again in September. The peeling tan bark is very ornamental as well.

Why do you think the dogwood died? (It matters in case there was a pathogen involved that might damage a susceptible kind of replacement tree).

I am so sorry I did not include my zone info. I'm in NC, zone 7A.

@whass_5A My soil? Where do I start? Since this house was built in 1930 it has been owned by people who love to garden. It is loamy and rich, not the typical clay. Great drainage. The Maple you suggested is beautiful. I'll put on my list to share with my husband. The "fish eye" view of the listing photo makes the yard look a LOT bigger than it is. The lawn, not including flower beds, is maybe 800 sq.ft.

@Dig Doug's, the Fringe tree is beautiful but I think it would cover the front of the house during the summer ( in the photo the dead Dogwood is casting the shadow). Thank you for the mock-up.

Y'all have any other suggestions? Spring blooms are a plus. I really am trying to look outside of my "known" zone of cherry plum, cherry, dogwood and maples.

Thanks!

Cercis Canadensis, Eastern Redbud?

I've never seen a fringe tree as large as a typical mature dogwood (just fyi).

Styrax obassia & Styrax japonica perhaps? Also, Red Buckeye or Japanese Lilac tree.

"... but I think it would cover the front of the house during the summer..." That's why we limb trees up ... to maintain a view and to let light nourish plants/grass below.

Yeah ... the redbud.

I think you pretty much just covered most if not all the spring blooming trees I can think of. To me spring blooms are over-rated as everything is blooming in spring. I look for blooms when few other things are blooming as they really stand out.

Magnolia is another for consideration but might look a little heavy.

Maackia amurensis is another light and airy tree. Lacks fall color but bark is metallic, blooms late July. The emerging leaves are silver so it appears to be blooming in the spring. On a cloudy rainy day they really stand out.

Can get a bit of feeling of it at the link below

https://portlandtreetour.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/april-2014-belated-bloom-day-and-foliage-follow-up/

American smoketree, cotinus obovatus.

I really really hate to suggest it, but don't forget crepe myrtle, which would be a small tree in your zone, and would provide summer color. There are some new releases that are pleasantly fragrant too.

I love redbuds and so do pollinators (I'm a beekeeper so pollinator useful plantings are key in my mind). How about Witch Hazel? It's a winter bloomer and very interesting. I agree with spring bloomers being overrated.

Also, I recently saw a coral bark Japanese maple in a nursery and found it to be quite intriguing.

And that fringe tree is just lovely in bloom. One of the local supermarkets (!) has several planted around it and they are quite breathtaking in bloom.Very delicate and ethereal.

Amelanchier canadensis, Serviceberry or Shadbush, is another nice tree if you can find a single trunk specimen. Spring flowers, summer fruit, great fall color.

So many good suggestions here....please tell us what you decide, OP.

Wow! Y'all have given me so many interesting choices! I'll be researching for a bit, lol.

It will definitely not be a crepe myrtle, we already have 3 between the sidewalk and street (shrub type) that I think I want to remove.

A Star Magnolia is now on my list (thanks waas_5a) I planted one at my old house in Charlotte (7b) and I always got a light rebloom in the summer.

Here is a current photo, I thought the very tall plants next to the dogwood were Echinacea but they got so tall this year I'm not sure. They will be coming out this fall (giving to my awesome UPS driver) for something more to scale with the fence.

I know, that dead tree looks awful! It will be coming down soon.

A Redbud is one of my favorites but I'm not sure if I can/should train it to a single trunk, thoughts?

I'll research all the other suggestions and come back with a list of what I think can work and that we can source locally. I'd really love additional input if you have time. My husband may need some help convincing if I want something he's never heard of, lol.

Thank you all, so much, for your time and help. Dig Doug's (I played that video game, lol) and Yardvaark-love your names!

For me, star magnolia would burn in full sunlight...your mileage may vary.

I suspect the yellow flowers are some form of Rudbeckia not Echinacea.

Redbuds are easily obtainable already with a single trunk. In fact, except for Cercis chinensis 'Avondale', they tend to be most often available only as a single trunked tree.

@embothrium The best guess of the arborist I had come out was "It just died." He checked all the other dogwoods on our property for the usual suspects, Spot (not usually fatal) and Dogwood Anthracnose (not generally found in our area). Last fall the gas company was doing a lot of work on my street so the possibility of root damage exists but (in my last posted photo) you can see a very healthy Dogwood just to the left.

@dbarron My previous Star had western exposure with Pin oaks providing some light shade, it did well. My current front exposure is eastern. And yes, what is in front of the fence is Rudbeckia, I was talking about the giant green stuff on the sides of the dead Dogwood. Any help identifying these giants is greatly appreciated.

The above photo is rudbeckia, probably maxima, but I can't see the foliage to be sure.

Could be nitida too.

@dbarron Thank you! Does this photo help for foliage? I'm trying not to deadhead in the hopes I can safely dig up and transplant sooner rather than later. I truly hate just trashing plants that don't work for me, especially when I have a good home for them to go to.

Looks like nitida to me. Err, it has a reputation for spreading stoloniferously, though I didn't have much issue with it when grown in Oklahoma (drier).

@dbarron Thank you so much! When we cut the tree down and dig up the plants I will make sure to look for errant stolons. It was actually a charming plant last summer (our 1st summer in this house) but it is wayyyy too tall for it's placement in our yard.

Oops...before the plant police jump on me, I got the names confused. This is R. laciniata, cutleaf coneflower. I got confused because laciniata and nitida have a hybrid called 'Herbstsonne' (which is what I was thinking about).

In fact, this could even be that cultivar...

If there isn't anything left of the dogwood around now that can be examined for signs of infestation with something like armillaria or verticillium for instance then be prepared for the possibility that the replacement tree may at some point "just die" also.

It's too bad you didn't have somebody more astute help you with this matter at the time. Nothing "just dies" - if there wasn't a killing weather event preceding the demise of the tree its carcass should have been examined for the presence of causal agents including perhaps even sending tissue samples to a lab for testing. (If the same method is still prevalent they put them on agar in beakers and then examine and identify what, if anything grows).

@Embothrium, In my arborists defense when I called he was dealing with a dead tree. It bloomed beautifully (late) and then my husband and I were travelling for weeks. When I called him he inspected all trees and shrubs on my property, he pulled back the mulch on all the beds to look for mold, critters, etc (we changed from pine needles to cedar mulch when we purchased the home 9/2016), some tests were done. Based on the info I have this tree was planted sometime in the late 60's/early 70's. It is possible that weather played a part, we had an extremely cold/long winter and much earlier and more snow than normal. And, I've still got the tree, if you'd like to pay for further testing...:) In all seriousness, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, it will help me with my other Dogwoods.

>some tests were done<

So material was collected and send to labs for diagnosis? Otherwise...

It could have simply died of old age. For one that lives to 100, another dies at 50