ryan.. brenda.. whatever your real name is .. lol .. you have posts on bald cypress and DRedwood ... are you aware they are both CONIFERS???? there is a conifer forum ... though you have gotten answers from some of those peeps already .... anyway ... both are deciduous in winter [maybe not in z7] .... why is yours in the house [or cold porch].. and leafed out in the middle of winter???? the soil in the pic is NOT proper for a tree nor a conifer ... way too much peat .... but both can probably take some amount of soggy roots .... when did you take delivery??? .. why .... both are extremely hardy, easy to grow plants.. if some minor things are done right .... what are you trying to accomplish??? cheap wind break??? if so.. we might know some better sellers for small bulk plants ... sometimes the cheapest is not the easiest way to go ... for an extra buck or two.. you can sometimes reduce your problems.. 100 fold ... i got my 6 foot BC .. aka taxodium.. in a 9 inch pot wrapped in plastic .... from BIG LOTS ... looked dead as a doornail .. and 6 years later it is easily a 20 footer with almost no aftercare .... you might have created a problem by going the ebay route ... taking delivery at the wrong time of year.. forcing you to try to grow it in the house.. etc ... and.. finally ... when this tree is 20 feet tall .. the little crook in the trunk will be a long lost memory ... plant it so the leader is vertical.. and forget about it for a decade or two ... and get it outside ASAP, at the proper planting time for your zone .... good luck ken

Horseman, your question about the growth rate is similar to what I am wondering. My tree has not added any height at all since it was planted last year. Neither does the trunk seemed to have thicken enough for me to perceive, if at all. If the late winter freeze issues had not distracted me, I would have been posting questions about the slow growth rate. Yesterday, I read on a website describing the cultivar, that the 'Gold Rush' cultivar does grow slower than the species. My 'Gold Rush' has a clean trunk about 3 feet up before the trunk forks of into two thin, flexible and arching, but still slightly branched and well leafed out trunks which makes up the canopy of the tree. It looks to me that the only reason the trunk is not branching out lower on the trunk is due to the way the grower pruned and trained the tree prior to shipping it to me. I planted mine in mid May of last year, and yes in the heat and drought of the summer the leaves did tend to want to turn brown. Whenever I saw the slightest amount of browning in the leaves, I would water the tree well, and each time, the leaves responded quickly, by changing again to their nice bright healthy color. Currently the leaves of my 'Gold Rush' look golden, and I can see some of the healthy bright green of the cultivar's normal spring leaf color trying to emerge from the base of those golden colored leaves.

That's the callus, which often develops at the base of a cutting before roots do. Be patient, it may well root yet, at least the callus shows the base is still alive and not diseased or rotting. Resin

I would say that it's fine to plant these near a drive-way. I would however, get the utility companies to come out and see where the lines are. These trees will have wide, buttressed trunks unless you "limb them up as they grow. They can take on two different forms depending on whether you prune the lower branches or not. I have seen them grow straight, narrow and tall like a telephone pole, with no branches below 20' (as the branches were limbed up as the tree grew) and I have seen them grow wide and spreading and thick at the base. It all depends. In the Pacific Northwest, these trees will be massive, in places like chicago, with extreme cold temps and a much shorter growing season, they will reach half the height they would in the Pacific Northwest. I would say go ahead and plant it. If you're worried about it damaging a driveway, just prune it up as it grows.