Q: Just a month ago, I bought a Cornus Florida "Rubra" plant from my local nursery and have planted it on a small sloping bed on the east side of the house. It it gets only morning sun up to about 1 pm as it gets very hot (>100) in summer. It is about 5 feet from my house corner.

Is this a proper location? If I moved it anywhere else it will face the hot sun in the afternoon. I'm not sure if it'll handle that. Please advise.

Also, I've been watching and all the leaves on the many branches have been successively drying up even though the bed receives water everyday drip system 10 minutes/day and being sloping with added top soil, drainage is not a problem here. The temp has just gone up to 90 only last couple of days, however, it has been extremely windy all day this past week (wind gusts upto 40 mph) can this be the problem?

A: My office has a dogwood just three feet out my window and facing west (in Alabama). It is doing just fine even in our killer southern summer afternoon sun. Still, we rarely get 100 degree weather for long periods (but 90 degrees often). My main concern is your tree planting zone. Dogwood will have a problem when the tree planting zone is higher than 8a.

If your local nursery is honest and reliable, they will not try to sell plants out of your local zone. You might want to ask them these same questions or see if any dogwoods are growing in your community. Also, call your local agricultural cooperative extension service for more information.

High winds will definitely "burn" tree seedling foliage. It usually does not immediately kill the tree but will cause leaf loss, top kill and root sprouting.

Wild Flowering Dogwood in Spring - Photo by Steve Nix, Licensed to About.com