I read that a Kousa was the best variety..no anthracnose..the only kind that I have..planted one in 2014..then 2 in 2015 and 2 in 2016..the pic above is one of the 2015's..this pic is the one planted 2014 (pic taken 2015)..the smallest..only $3..did well so I bought more..now have 5..the 2016's are the biggest..one is at least 7 ft..not much color on it yet..3 are still green..I have alot of trees so they don't get alot of sun..but the first 3 came thru the winter and have done well..I have a good environment for them..I also have Japanese maples that have great color..

how funny is this..there's dead hickory leaves stuck in both dogwoods..should look before I take pics..

Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis(6), my C. kousas are the last tree to color, along with the tail end of the oaks and beeches and Fothergilla. Good red fall color, but many of the maples, both native and Japanese, are brighter here. Mine have stayed disease free longer than the C. florida I had. I can't compare the timing of the color change of the two since I had them on two different properties and not at the same time.

NHBabs..do you have a preference between the Kousa and Florida?

Here in TN my kousas color after floridas. Right now the floridas are bare and the kousas are mostly fully foliaged. It is dry and getting drier, the kousas are a bust color wise, as is most everything else. It's kind of strange, trees are either bare or green.

kentrees..so the drought caused leaf drop without fall color?..seems reasonable..sorry the season was disappointing..

The trees that color relatively early colored poorly as things got drier. They lost their foliage and the later turners have held on to their green leaves due to the hot weather lasting into early Nov. Cooler weather is on the doorstep so I'm hoping that the trees that are still green will provide some color.

I hope you get some fall color..unusual weather for us too..news today said that we will be breaking a 60 yr old record for the latest first frost date..

Nicholsworth, the last C. florida I had succumbed to what I assume was anthracnose. That was 20 years ago. I just got another C. florida this year, so I will see how it does. When C. florida is healthy, I think I like it more since it blooms before the leaves, though C. kousa blooms for quite a bit longer. I also find that when we have early snow, like around now, with the C. kousa still well-leafed, it gets bent and doesn't fully recover, so mine have interesting shapes. The C. florida dropping its leaves a couple of weeks earlier is an advantage here some years since they are mostly gone by early first snowfall. I don't know how hardy the C. florida will be, but of the two C. kousa I have one was quite severely damaged by the winter before last when we got down to several degrees below -20.

My druthers would be to have at least one of each, since that would extend the dogwood season to almost two months.

NHBabs..I have limited experience with dogwoods..my oldest kousa is just 2 yrs old..when I bought 2 kousas this fall I noticed that other customers were more interested in floridas..yay for me since I got the prettiest kousas..I noticed at the store the kousa foliage was cleaner..the floridas had problems..I hope the snow won't bend my trees..so far so good..we might have less snow than you do..too bad all varieties aren't problem free..