Mine does fine in a shaded area.

In the Nashville area, your red twig dogwood would be fine on the Eastern side of your property. Enough sun to encourage the stems during winter, and enough rest from the stronger sunlight after spring to make leaf but not scorch. For what it's worth......there is a variegated red twig dogwood that an O'Charley's in East Knoxville has planted all around it's parking lot and building that gets both Northeastern to full South-Western exposure that hasn't read the books about sunlight. I'm taking cuttings of that puppy this spring (or watch for the landscaping crew to sheer the poor things back come springtime and ask for cuttings) to root for my own. I'd try and find it at Stanley's, but not be sure it would be the same kind. I love these. Have you thought of getting a yellow twig dogwood as well? Planting them together would be neat to see during the winter with their different colored twigs in the winter light. I lived in Inglewood for 37 years and noticed the older yards with red-twig dogwoods had them on their eastern side of their property.

I have my yellow-twig on the lower terrace near the opening of my woods facing south, but I lost my red twigs that were on the eastern side due to construction of my nook's boardwalk entrance to a mini deck. (I also lost a phenominal pink butterfly bush that had blossoms as long as my forearm and I couldn't tell you what variety it was to replace it if I tried. I got it in Michigan....ooops sorry, tangient gardening thought there...

Good luck with your red twigs. They'll do fine. And if you've already got them or have found them, go ahead and plant them before winter really sets in. Just keep them watered when it's really dry, and mulch them in, but don't drown them. Let us know how they do next spring. Oh yeah, don't forget to cut them back to within 2 or 3 buds close to the base, and apply well rotted manure and mulch to compensate for the loss of the vigorous wood until it resprouts even more to give you an impressive winter show next year.

madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36