Dogwoods grow down in the woods where I come from. Not just any woods with decades upon decades of natural soil covered in natural mulch. Damp woods.

I am not suprized when people plant them out in the yard and they just can't make it. I think the thick nasty (in my opinion) grass/turf is the enemy, but I can't prove it. (I hate lawns and have planted enough trees in hopes that my lawn is unecessary and dead/covered mostly with natural mulch at some point, but my better half ain't so sure, so I have to save patches of the green borg.)

I often think that the massive, awesome dogwoods I see in a few yards of older houses spent most of their live as an understory to other trees that were removed at some point.

I know there are various cultivars that make good "yard trees" but most every person I see who runs out and plants a dogwood ends up with a dead one....

I hope that one makes it. :-)

As a young teen, I worked a grounds + greehouse crew. I loved the greenhouses and the beds. I didn't mind cutting the bermuda and bent greens either. But oh, the fairways and maintaining the rough in the hot GA sun must have made me develop an anti-turf bias. That plus installing irrigation and dropping chemicals to keep it all nice while the majestic trees snickered at us for all the fussing over grass!

may be what people do to it, like dump nitrogen on it, overwater it, spray it with things to kill "weeds," mow it regularly with large riding lawnmowers, etc

anyway, i was being silly, of course, but dogwoods are understory / forest edge trees, in my own personal opinion (and that's it, opinion) so when the younger ones die out in the sun, i don't feel the need to speculate much further than the tree didn't like it there...

Without more info than what we've been given, I'd tend to bet on "Dan's Default #1: improper planting" (a wild guess that is frequently correct). Anyone remember that one?

I just planted a Kousa dogwood (labelled "Samaritan") and just wondered if anyone knew what to do, or what not to do, if some of the leaves are reddish brown. I assume its being underwatered, because the leaves feel a little crispy. This tree is in a full sun environment, but the leaves are variegated, so I am worried that it should have shade, but I have no where else to put it. Any thoughts?