Hmmmm.... so maybe the bracts will expand and turn plain ol' white. I just wish I could find out what the height and spread of it is supposed to be. Google has been no help with an "unryu" dogwood variety. Thanks for your input. I do appreciate it.

Species of "stem" dogwoods are told apart by botanical features, not many of which are present on this specimen in its current state.

Argh, that sounds frustrating. My experience with grey birch is that they literally grow like (beautiful) weeds in a natural setting. The clump near our back pasture produces so many seedlings my husband has to mow to keep them down. It doesn't seem to have any pests. A white birch I planted died within a year, however. I haven't had much luck planting natives, personally. Maybe they're persnickity about soil ph or something. I usually content myself with growing a named cultivar (is that the word?) of a native species. Selective breeding seems to produce sturdier plants. Re: the serviceberry, I lost an expensive tree-form on recently. It had taken me ages to find a pair, and then one of them died. And the remaining one doesn't look too good. The magnolia, however, is doing great.

I bought a test kit from Lowes and ran a few samples last night. I'm sure you all are familiar with these test kits, but it gives you a color chart to match up you sample after adding the Barium Sulphate and Ph solution. To be honest, It was hard to tell what color it matched but I think the pH close to the tree was around 5-6. There are a bunch of other tests in the kit. Is there another one that might be more important than the other?