It is just cornus kousa. I would think that being an understory tree, in such a hot climate, that it would benefit from the shade of a larger tree. What is your USDA zone?

Try looking up the climate zoning for it in the Sunset Western Garden Book. There is also the matter of how it might be affected by minerals in irrigation water. Japanese maples and evergreen azaleas for instance can take the heat in watered gardens in parts of California where they still need to have minerals flushed out of the soil periodically to persist.

And now of course there is the problem of the 6 year drought, resulting restrictions on water use making it perhaps not the best time to invest in east Asian monsoon climate plants such as these.

It's Cornus kousa var. chinensis. Chinese Dogwood.

Sunset shows it as being only marginally suitable in CA's Central Valley. And not going to be very happy in full sun - it even looks peaked here in the mild PNW in full sun locations by midsummer. Would need LOTS of water to get it through that heat in full sun.

Chinese kousa dogwoods tend to be more floriferous than the regular species and with larger leaves and bracts. When in full bloom here, a well-established tree is so densely covered in flowers, it is often hard to see any foliage!!

Thanks all ...just wanted to know if someone has really tried growing it on this type of environment, it's a darn pretty tree! It's Cornus kousa var. chinensis which i read somewhere could be a bit heat tolerant and not that root invasive, perfect for my smaller yard

Good places to look for possible trees for one's own place are the University of California Arboretum in Davis and the capital grounds in Sacramento, which is basically planted as an arboretum, has species from all over including some pretty marginal or experimental ones - all kinds often with signs on them saying what they are.

Cappiello & Shadow (2005, Dogwoods, Timber Press, Portland, Cambridge) say plants grown as C. kousa var. chinensis come true from seed and

show excellent vigor, a bit earlier flowering than the species, large, broad bracts, and excellent fall foliage color

They don't mention anything about them blooming more or being more heat tolerant. Of plants I've seen here that I thought were one type or the other it seemed the less vigorous, more twiggy and dense-branching (within the main branches, rather than between them) Japanese ones were those that might be more inclined to absolutely plaster themselves with flowers.

That text may not address it but there sure are a lot of other sources that DO mention the heavy flowering habit and my own experience with this variant mirrors that.

Great Plant Picks: "The flowers can be so numerous you can hardly see any green leaves!"

MOBOT: "It is particularly noted for (a) abundant white-bracted flowers which
bloom in profusion in May, (b) edible red berries (to 1.25" diameter)
which mature in summer, and (c) showy orange-red fall foliage color."

OSU: "Cornus kousa chinensis 'Milky Way' - much heavier flower and
fruit production, and the most common cultivar".

I have seen many different kousa dogwood, some tend to be covered while others are only dotted with flowers.