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Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron) in Mid Atlantic

10 years ago

I've seen a few Sequoiadendron here in the East but only in arboretums...

I've heard 'Hazel Smith' does OK in our humidity. Can anyone give me a real-life example of success in the East with a Giant Sequoia?

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Comments (7)

taxo_man
10 years ago
Here is a list some growing in Connecticut. You can find pictures if you go to the website. Link below.

The first set of numbers (ex) 233 is the total amount of points, 144 is the circumference in inches, 70 is the height in feet, and 35 is the average spread in feet.

List of Sequoiadendron giganteum (Giant Sequoia)

Town Points Circ.(in) Height(ft) Spread(ft)
Glastonbury 223 144 70 35
East Haven 216 143 65 32
New London 147 94 47 24
Greenwich 142 88 48 24.3
East Haven 131 77 48 24
Glastonbury 80 52 22 24
Waterbury 73 36 33 14

Here is a link that might be useful: Connecticut Notable Trees
pineresin
10 years ago
It won't do well in the mid Atlantic, it can't cope with 4,000 metres of salt water.

Resin
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Simple answer: sempervirens can be grown in the southeast and can take the heat. giganteum does not like high humidity heat, and grows much slower in east coast summers than it does out west with dry summers. Can be grown, but will not thrive and the amount of maintenance required usually makes it more of a specimen tree for arboretums and botanic gardens than anything else. Basically, you want to grow a tree in the redwood family requiring less maintenance and much more ease, and you live on the east coast, stick with cunninghamia, cryptomeria, taxodium or metasequoia (or go for the gold with glyptostrobus if you live in zones 8 and above). not sure about athrotaxis or taiwania on the east coast, any experience?
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I know this thread's a bit old but I have had some personal experience with Sequoia "Hazel Smith". I live in northern Indiana and I was able to obtain four plants from the Crowfoot Nursery in Oregon last spring (2018). Now this year (June of '19) three of them look pretty good. One died but I don't think it was from the cold. But here is what is really interesting: They were shipped to me before the grafts had completely knitted and I was told to leave the root stock on there for last year's season. Over the winter (we had BRUTAL one), the root stock shoots were completely killed - dead as a doornail. BUT! The Hazel Smith graft was still mostly a healthy looking blue green. So, based on this evidence, I have concluded that "Hazel Smith" is cold hardy and able to withstand zone 5 temps. (I had -22°F at the end of January for two days in a row! That was NOT the "wind chill" mind you but the actual outside ambient temperature. Wind child was in the neighborhood of -40--60° below. So, for you Sequoia freaks living in zone 5, my advice is "to go for it". Regards Fred M. Cain, Topeka, IN
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Tom Tasselmyer (such a Baltimorean name) is reporting that January was the 8th coldest January in Baltimore history. The official records for Baltimore go back to 1871 though the records prior to 1893 are not catalogued at SERCC. The average IIRC was 27F. Coldest ever was 1977 at 22F. The Barnes Foundation Sequoia was planted in 1971 so it would have survived that. None of mine have 'tons of dieback' so far. I'd say it varies from minimal dieback on the largest one, which is about 7' - mostly snow burn near the snow line - to 30% needle damage on my smallest plant. 'Atlanta' might be a hair tougher than 'Chapel Hill'/'Swarthmore'. 'Soquel' has the least damage but it is the big one. Lows were 3F, several times during the month, and a couple 48 h+ stretches that stayed below about 15F. FWIW Pseudotsuga sinensis has similar burning just above the snow line. We had the longest stretch of powdery snow "lying on ground" as the Brits say, that I can remember. 95% of the time here, powdery snow will be mush within 3 days. It stayed cold for so long that a lot of things show a ring of damage where light was reflected by the snow. Even something as hardy as Cryptomeria has completely dead branchlets in that zone. I think I might have posted earlier that I was surprised by how little damage there was in the first freeze. Sadly, the 2nd and 3rd were just too much for various plants. Particularly the 2nd round of snow, which was accompanied by even stronger winds than the first. Maybe they were more brittle because of the earlier freeze, but all of my arborescent Ericas (hey, they kinda look like conifers) were totally destroyed, stems split clear to the ground. I've never seen that in almost 20 years of growing Erica arborea alpina, for example. Not 'alpine' enough, apparently. The foliage was fine though. It's sad to see the green foliage attached to broken stems and dying from the point of the break upward. Camellias are ok so far, including 'Aida' which is the hardiest C. X williamsii, I was lucky I didn't go below 0F as most points about 15 miles north of me in York and Lancaster Cos. did.
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Not to quibble, but I don't think that 95% of the world figure is accurate. In China(20% of the world's population) most everyone uses Chinese measurements like lÇ, chÇ, mÇ, jÄ«n, etc. as do many SE Asian countries(especially ones with significant historical interaction with the Chinese). I'd bet that probably 1/2 of English literate people on the internet(ie. potential posters on gardenweb) use Imperial measurements still. I try to post both measurements to save people from having to convert them themselves, but I also like number crunching so it is also for a bit of personal want as well. I do forget to do this from time to time though. Anyway, back to the original posting, I too enjoyed the new website and thought it was very convenient to have all of the information brought together in one website. I think the general public(non-plant people) will find it easy to navigate and perhaps start a passion for plants within them(hopefully).
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davidrt28 (zone 7)
10 years ago
This has come up before, several times, but, at least it gave Resin another opportunity to reuse his favorite (only?) joke about North American placenames. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Guess what? Ely is not literally Ely. I mean, sure there are some out in the sea, but that's true anywhere around the coast of the British Isles. The eels aren't ordering drinks at the local pubs and serving as tourist guides. Yet.

They grow best in zn 6 or 5b areas where nights are cooler. Even one at Planting FIelds Arboretum, on maritime influenced Long Island, looked like complete cr-p after the past 3 hot summers. I have a picture but I don't have time to post it. The one at Longwood looks ok but heck, it's Longwood, maybe they spray the thing each year with $2500 of double distilled neem oil or something similarly outlandish to prevent disease. They have an endowment of more than a half billion dollars so they can afford to keep their trees looking perfect. There are a couple others in Philly area that look OK, that's about the southern limit AFAIK. I think the best looking ones on the east coast are probably in upstate NY, New England, etc. Has to be a place w/summer nights Fortunately there's probably a fairly consistent border with the region in which the hardiest clones of Sequoia semprevirens can be grown, with some gaps of course. South of Philly, east of perhaps Harper's Ferry, WV (the "front range" of VA&MD), or along the coast up to Long Island, try S.s., otherwise S.g. NB the existing so-called hardier S.s. like 'Chapel Hill', which withstood -10F in NC, are not known to be selected from the coldest valleys where it grows. The current zn 10/9 parts of its range might have been zn 8/7 during the ice age. My research indicates 'Swarthmore Hardy' is probably 'Chapel Hill'.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Sat, Jun 15, 13 at 20:30
davidrt28 (zone 7)
10 years ago
"I've heard 'Hazel Smith' does OK in our humidity. "

I don't know why that would be...was that posted here by someone? If someone wants to post a picture of a healthy looking S.g., in the Southeastern Piedmont, south of Philly and east of the mountains, be my guest. I'd love to be corrected.
pineresin
10 years ago
"Guess what? Ely is not literally Ely. I mean, sure there are some out in the sea, but that's true anywhere around the coast of the British Isles. The eels aren't ordering drinks at the local pubs and serving as tourist guides"

Errm . . . take a look ;-)

Resin
davidrt28 (zone 7)
10 years ago
I saw Jellied Eels for sale in Brighton, Resin!
YOUR WHOLE COUNTRY IS EEEEEEEELY! YUCK!
davidrt28 (zone 7)
10 years ago
That's a pretty funny take on public art. Good for them. I'd want to live that name down, too.

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