I planted this one about 33 years ago. Last Fall when this picture was taken, it measured approximately 77 ft. The lower limbs are dying and will have to be removed. Too much shade, I guess. I hope the information I've given you will help you decide where to place yours. I would plant the variety 'Ogon' if you can. The needles are a beautiful yellow. I will try to find a picture of mine. Mike

I've never had a problem with the heating pad being on non-stop for 12 weeks and my heating pad sits on the lowest wooden shelf of my plant stand, under a 48" two-tube fluorescent light fixture. No, bottom heat is probably not necessary, but it helps A LOT as far as rooting goes. I only have one heating pad so I do root Thuja and Chamaecyparis without the bottom heat, but the cuttings on the bottom heat root faster and with a higher percentage of the cuttings rooting. I generally take cuttings between 4 and 5" long. Metasequoia grows quite fast so it's best to not start with too large a cutting. A smaller cutting will also root easier than a larger cutting. HTH, Mike

dax, I didn't even catch your last comment, lol. The other half was heckling me a few weeks ago about the very same thing. Since posting the tree has put on more growth, not much, but none the less it put some on. Wow, I took this pic from the deck and it looks like a 4' tree. I measured it the other day and its 8' tall. I was mistaken about it being 6'.

Thanks for the replies, all. Here is a bit more information based on your questions and comments. Very wet spring ... relatively cool summer ... is heating up now, but the brown areas occurred before that. Foliage doesn't seem thin, but I agree that there are quite a few curled needles, which I don't think is typical. (As you can tell, I know nothing about this stuff.) I don't know what borer damage would look like, but just gaging from the words, I don't think so, because I don't see any unusual damage on the stems and trunks. My lawn guy is using standard stuff on the grass, and he did spray for Japanese Beetles. I'm not sure what he used. I sprayed them myself last year several times using standard Ortho stuff and didn't have any issues, but maybe he's using something that might cause an issue. I will check with him. I took a few more pics ... the one below is of one of the trees. You can see the brown spots, but overall they don't look too bad. I noticed the spots when I was looking down on them from the deck one evening. I will do a search and see if I have a county extension agent. Thanks again!