Having been at my current location for 30 years, I have lots of opinions on small ornamental trees, and by the word "small", I'm talking about trees are don't become huge 80' trees. When I first came to my property it was "high and dry", up on an exposed hillside, one acre of sun plus a steep lower acre of mature dry Sugar Maple woods and invasives Japanese Barberry and Buckthorn. I planted a number of trees, selecting carefully for those trees that will not outgrow their location, and will provide some shade and year round interest. Thirty years later, how successful was I with my selection, pretty good, but some mistakes were made too.
One tree I planted is Cornus kousa 'Milky Way' (note: 'Milky Way' is a "grex", in other words, not a single cultivar but a group of similar looking clones that go under a group name of Milky Way). The tree has some strong pros, but also some cons. I'm in Massachusetts near New Hampshire, USDA Zone 5, my property is exposed to strong northerly winter winds.
On the pros side:
1. strong growing tree, iron-clad hardy.
2. rich deep green foliage, good wind break and shade
3. fast grower (but I see this as a con too, see below), can grow 3'-4' per year!
4. seems drought resistant
5. showy flowers
6. bizarre red fruits, size of golf balls, can be showy & intriguing (see cons too)
7. mature bark flakes and shows orange coloration, interesting
8. autumn color is very late and can be amazing
9. tree has deep roots, not too many surface roots, so a good choice for underplanting with shade-growing plants.
On the cons side:
1. grows too fast, grows wider than tall and takes up too much space, I prune heavily every two years.
2. major limbs send up vertical sucker sprouts that need to be pruned out.
3. in years of heavy flowering, it makes masses of soft juicy fruits, a total squishy smelly mess when they drop in the autumn.
Long and short of it, I think I made a mistake with this selection, while it has many attributes, the aggressive rate of growth and mass of messy fruits are strong negatives.
I also had a popular hybrid with Cornus kousa crossed with our native Cornus florida, named 'Stellar Pink', which they say is resistant to dogwood borer and anthracnose disease, but it indeed came down with anthracnose disease, looked so horrible for years that I finally cut it down.
Hope this helps. I have photos of this tree if that would help in your selection effort.
