Redwood, for some reason the pictures of your trees didn't seem to come through. Maybe you should try embedding them again. (-;

The pic was in the Conifer Forum.

I wasn't talking about the picture that somebody posted of a Dawn Redwood that looked kind of pitiful. I was talking about the pictures or Redwood's own trees and garden.

I don't have pictures of my trees to post. I was replying to somebody who has posted a picture of their tree.

haha what a tease

Was it planted in shade?

Whenever the Metasequoia and the Taxodium lose their needles around here (especially in plantings with evergreen Sequoias), I'm always worried that the Landscapers will chop them down, mistaking their deciduous nature for death. I keep my fingers crossed.

Josh

I've considered leaving a note about the deciduous thing if/when I sell my house!

Real Estate Broker chiming in here:

Please *do* make sure the buyers know what they're getting, not only that it's deciduous, but that it's a prehistoric tree, thought to have been extinct, etc etc.

I've seen people cut down trees for the stupifest "reasons", reducing the value of their property as well as being just generally barbaric.

oops.

don't know how that soapbox got there under my feet.

We get at least one phone call at the nursery every fall from a new homeowner with a "dying pine tree". Really a larch.

i planted 4 of them in my backyard last year,

all are doing great, and are above 6' now

planted a few back east in ny when i lived there as well.

one almost got me put in jail.

Ok, I gotta ask. How did the Metasequoia almost get you put in jail?

I only have two in the ground so I'm not feeling too bad yet. Think the limit is 1 per 1/4 acre, anymore and you're a hoarder? ;)

yes, please tell us about your near-experienced jail incident regarding this tree. I've heard many urban legends about this tree, and would be interesting to hear about one that may be true.

Lol.

Nice that they moved it rather than just cut it down

Resin

I was in NYC last summer (think it was in the West Village). I couldn't believe I saw Dawn Reds planted in a small park lining the street. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE these trees but do they realize how HUGE and how FAST these trees grow!! Still, it was nice to see them along side all the majestic gingko trees.--Kind of like being in Jurassic park.

Ha, I love it. My wife is gonna roll her eyes when I tell her then warn me about guerrilla gardening.

Low branched Dawn Redwoods make me think of the Ents from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings... just my imagination getting out of control I suppose.
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hey riegersteve i live in ny and i have dawn redwoods... what exactly happened???

One of my favorite conifers for sure. I have seen them many places, like in Szechuan, China and even in West Palm Beach, Florida where they struggle, but survive. Even in our extremely well drained, sandy soil in North Florida they will do well. I know of a 75' tall one in town. I have one planted with Taxodium mucronatum and Glyptostrobus pensilis in a group. One I planted around '94 or so in NE Ohio is now about 40' tall. The only problem it has had was an attack by periodical cicadas. Japanese beetles chew on it some in late summer too.

I planted 25 Dawn Redwoods in Wasilla, Alaska. They found fossils of them around here so they should do well, they are only 1 ft high now but budding and growing nicely!

Saw a giant specimen of this tree recently at Skyland's Botanical Garden in upstate Ringwood, NJ--HUGE! They are very hardy robust trees but they can be susceptible to damage from excessive heat or cold while leafing out in the Spring. One other problem is that they are very sensitive to salt--so snow removal products are best avoided anywhere around them. On the positive side, they are very tolerant of WET soils and grow FAST. Planted a half dozen of them in the back for a grove.

The Dawn Redwood was believed to be extinct. An expedition from the Missouri Botanical Garden discovered a grove of them in China in the late 40's. The trees we are now enjoying are supposed to be descendants of the trees in that grove. I worked on the roof & cornice renovation of the Henry Shaw house in Mo. Bot. garden. The gardeners gave me a couple saplings. I ended up not having a place to put them & gave them to a friend. That was in 2001. They are over 30 feet now.
I know what you mean about planning. The city of St Louis just planted a lot of Bald Cyprus along the streets. People will not be able to park or walk down the sidewalks when these trees mature.

The bald cypress will need to be limbed up for ppl to walk under. Even dawn redwood takes that well. At Dawes last month I was under a few with higher canopies thanks to shade.

hello... I live in Houston,TX. I have 20ac and want to plant a few of Dawn Redwood trees. Does anyone know if this tree will survive in the hot climate of Houston?

Thx.

JulieB10,

My brother tried growing DRs in Houston and he said that they don't seem to do well in Houston. Montezuma Cypress (aka Mexican Bald Cypress) would do better. Pretty fast grower and nearly evergreen in Houston (unlike typical Bald Cypress that you see everywhere). Best form of MCs I've seen tend to come from Stephen F Austin State University Montezuma Cypress tree that we collected cones from and grew them from seeds. SFA Arboretum hosts Fall Plant Sale and they always have MC or MC-BC hybrids if you want to try them out or just collect cones and try growing them from seeds.

Thank you so much Lou for your advise! I will certainly try to find some MC for my land.

Julie, try contacting Rennerwood Farm if you want to get a liner of MCs to save $$$ to start a grove of MCs. It is fairly hard to find MCs locally and they tend to be big ones if you find them. Pricey too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rennerwood

Hi Julie,

The ones I have planted in Houston have done ok but they are still young. I have seen bigger ones at the Mercer Arboretum that are doing ok I guess. If you have the space then I would still try a dawn redwood just to see what happens. My montezuma cypress trees grow much faster and are much fuller.

What part of houston do you live in? How many trees do you want?

Hi... I live in cypress. I bought 20 acres of land 3 yrs ago. In it, there is a 5ac pond. Last yr, I planted 30 weeping willows and 30 Bald Cypress around the pond. I planted them 40ft apart. Yet, I still have about 400 ft more to go to complete the perimeter.

That said, I would love to have around 10 MC's. however, they are so hard to find.

Thank you all very much for the replies!

Julie,

I can probably get you 10 MC (small) if you want. I also have some nanjing beauty hybrids (MCxBC) you can have. I also have a ton of small seedlings from the tree in the link below. Actually I have a lot of other trees too, just small. Send me a message and we can talk about it.

Here is a link that might be useful: BC

Julie,
Here is a pic of a dawn redwood that I planted a few years ago.

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Before I yard planted metasequoia in Texas I would compare the climate to what St Louis had last year. Our record setting heat and drought, which might be normal for your area, would probably have killed my decade old metasequoia if not for this ridiculously heavy watering schedule I went to.

Now it was rough on many of our natives also and maybe mine was just acclimated to the climate it knew its whole life, but I don't know how much heat and drought metasequoia is built for.

I planted the tree above at a school in the neighborhood. In general the Houston area gets close to 50 inches of rain per year but there can times when it gets dry. A bald cypress/montezuma cypress are better options but its fun to experiment a little.

Here is a Ogon DR that I planted in my back yard last year.

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I did not realize you get that much rain. Probably as much as Seattle!

Texas is a big state!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:497574}}