My husband got me a lovely red dogwood tree back in May. We have no REAL plant dealers close, and he saw these at a nursery about 2 hours away, and we bought one.

It was just going out of bloom, ball and burlap, about 7 feet, 3" or so calliper. It sat for a few weeks while I had the electric line marked, and the rain died down. Never wilted, or showed stress, and we got it planted. It was doing great, with new groth, and staring to blush a bit for Fall, when a 60 mph windstorm blew it down. The planting hole was filled with quicksand, so it was easy to right the tree, but it's rootball looked pretty small, like a lot of the roots had been ripped off. DH staked it. Then the weather got into the 90's for a few days, and alll the leaves turned black.

It is putting out new growth on the trunk, and the main branches are green when scraped.

I called the nursery, and (predictably, I suppose...) she said I should just shovel prune and replace it.

My question(finally!) is: Is it worth cutting back to live wood, should I let it put new growth ot at the bottom, , or see if I can get it to sprout at the top?

I no longer live in zone 8....I am in zone 6.

Thanks! Nancy