The main reason kousas are recommended over cornus florida is because they are less prone to disease. Dogwoods are a bit problematic. It always seems to be something with them. I don't think kousas look "great" in full sun. As for why pears are a bad idea, here are some reasons why. 1.) They are environmentally unfriendly as they are an invasive species that are taking over native forest including dogwoods (especially dogwoods!) and choking them out with thickets. 2.) They are weak wooded and have narrow crotch angles and break apart in storms. But they will get very big first creating an expensive tree surgeon service call. 2.5) They are short lived. 3.) The blooms smell bad. 4.) The blooms are short. 5.) The leaves drop very late in the season requiring second cleanup. 6.) Surface roots. Big ones. And they are numerous. 7.) Dense shade = no turf, moss, possibly unwanted perennial moisture, shrooms etc. 8.) The people that still grow these don't deserve one red cent. 9.) Partridges 10.) McFlora... yawn. Serviceberrys , crab apples, red maple and cherries are commonly suggested for full sun sites where flowering trees are desired as substitutes for callery pears. None of those are perfect either the small flowering trees in general are not the longest lived in the bunch but anything is better than a 40 foot tree that was planted 5 years prior that literally explodes in a seemingly innocent storm and lands on property or persons requiring thousands in cleanup or insurance deductibles, wrongful death lawsuits etc.

bboy, I want to share my Pagoda dogwood experience with you. I have a 5 ft tall of this tree. A friend of mine gave it to me last year. I dug it from her front yard. It was geographically transplanted around May 22. I put it in my backyard which gets sun from 9-10am until 5pm. About August of last year, it wasn't doing well. I saw tons of leaf loss. This year, I only have watered it once and the leaves are all still intact and healthy green. We also didn't get rain for more than 2 weeks. It's been quite hot here as well. It was only last Saturday that we got insane amount of rain. My 8 ft tall ninebark's maroon leaves though started to wilt. I was under the impression that it's drought tolerant. So yeah, I'm very happy with my Pagoda. I noticed though that it's a slow grower.

I pruned my Kouza dogwood over the course of its first 4 years (or so) to open up the interior and remove any crossing branches. This pruning created a well shaped tree, now 20 years later. Yes, remove the lower branches so it is not bushy, if you do not want bushy. Also, envision what it will look like as it matures with the branches you have and want to keep. Remember not to remove more than 20% or the branches in any given year so as not to stress the tree. There are good resources on "young tree training/pruning" which illustrate where to make pruning cuts, shaping a tree properly. Also, prune your tree for the location (such as removing branches which may grow to touch the house).

Here in Indianapolis, I planted 3 Kousa about 40 years ago. Two never thrived and I removed them several years ago. The third has been a beautiful horizontal-branching tree receiving maybe 2 hours of sun. A few seedlings have come up from time to time and I've had limited success in moving them. The most successful seedling was moved to a very shady part of the yard (7-8 years ago?) that occasionally floods briefly. It was at the north drip line of an old sugar maple. It died back after a drought a few years ago. It came back, but had never been more than 18" tall. Four years ago, the sugar maple was removed and that Kousa now gets sun much of the day and began to grow. This year, it grew nearly 3'!!!! (It was an unbelievably wet summer!) Like so many of our trees and shrubs this year, the foliage doesn't look great (brown spots and brown edges) and it hasn't started to show any color yet (other than the brown), but it looks very healthy otherwise. The parent usually has great fall color, but that parent and everything else is late this fall. Sometimes, more sun seems to be good for a Kousa!