Is a flowering dogwood a good tree to plant in Indiana?
Flowering Dogwood can work here, with caveats. Native throughout Indiana and widely planted as an ornamental in central Indiana; dogwood anthracnose has been confirmed in Indiana but powdery mildew, borer, and plain site stress do most of the damage here, unlike the Appalachian corridor where anthracnose drove the epidemic. If the spot is full sun on stripped clay, kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) or a florida-by-kousa hybrid is the more durable replant than another Cornus florida.
What you'd be signing up to clean up
Almost none — a couple of weeks of white or pink bracts dropping in late April, small leaves in fall, and clusters of red drupes that birds usually strip before they hit the ground. The one thing homeowners actually notice is the bird traffic under the tree in September and October and the droppings that land on whatever is parked beneath it.
Where to keep it away from
Dogwood roots are shallow and fibrous, sitting in the top few inches, and they lose the water competition against turfgrass badly — which is exactly why a dogwood marooned in a mowed lawn on compacted clay struggles. It also means trenching anywhere inside the dripline for irrigation, a fence, or a downspout drain is enough to start a decline that takes two or three years to show up.
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