There are a lot of nice variegated dogwoods. I collected as many as I could find that had a visual impact. Here are the kousa varieties I had. Cornus kousa 'Akatsuki' - White margin, pink flowers, sensitive/weak grower. Cornus kousa 'Bonfire' - Subtle cream margin, not have as much visual impact. Cornus kousa 'Kristin Lipka's Variegated Weeper' - White margin, smaller leaves, weeping. Cornus kousa 'Lemon Ripple' - Yellow margin, similar to the more popular 'Summer Gold' Cornus kousa 'Samaritan’/‘Samzam' - White margin, most extreme wavy edges in sun, similar to 'Wolf Eyes' Cornus kousa 'Snowboy' - Very wide white margin making it stand out, slower grower because of that. Cornus kousa 'Summer Fun' - White margin, robust growth, big impact. Cornus kousa 'Summer Gold' - Yellow margin, good grower. Cornus kousa 'Sunsplash' - Yellow margin, similar to the more popular 'Summer Gold'. Cornus kousa 'Wolf Eyes' - White margin, good growth, first time I saw it was growing in some shade at Collectors Nursery in Washington, I understood why it was named 'Wolf Eyes'.

but will they suck out too many nutrients, or cause some other problems? ==>>> soil fertility does not work that way ... do not be confused to think you will ever need to feed the tree .. within a year or two ... the tree will be way beyond the influence of the plants below ... and should start the process of out competing anything close to it .. ken

once the seed/nut/wing is dropped from the new sprout .. IMO ... the tap root is just another root ... it has no further use .... it just held the tree there when it was tiny ... i have moved dozens of redbud on my 5 acres .. i have no clue the source your read ... but its bunk ..imo ... a tree is a tree is a tree ... do it at the right time.. best you can.. and followup properly ... and ALL TREES CAN BE MOVED ... to repeat ... they would not be sold for transplant.. if what you read was true ... who in the world would invest 5 or 10 years.. to grow a tree to salable size only to have it fail en masse ... no one ... below is a pic of how i moved 6 to 8 foot cherry .. prunus serotina... i suppose we might find some WWW claim... that they are hard to move ... note.. as it stands.. if there was a tap.. i cut it off ... i have also moved oaks and redbud in the same manner ... ken

based on the staking.. it looks like a new transplant ... if so.. no canopy pruning for at least a year or two ... you need to grow a root mass to get the tree established ... and every leaf is an energy making machine.. so do go cutting any off for now ... tree time i counted in decades ... what your hurry with this one ... how about a pic fop the whole plant ... there is what you 'can' do ... then what you 'should' do.. and then.. then 'when' you should do it ... applying such ... yeah.. you can ... should you.. meh.. maybe ... when.. in a year or two ... and to be clear.. once established.. and you have a little more experience with this plant.. yes.. it would be very simple to snip them off when they are this small ... and the roots will be all set.. and the plant established.. so knock yourself out .. ken