I planted a Dawn redwood 'Gold Rush' in the backyard of my high-roof single story house. This cultivar has been reported to grow slower than the regular redwoods, but even if it gets 100 feet tall, It should still balance well with the height that my currently mature Scarlet and Sumard oaks will be at that time. It also helps that there is a taller two story house next door just south of my house with a huge 30 year old cottonwood tree growing in its backyard. I am also expecting for the 'Gold Rush' cultvar tree to mature and provide some light shade for the three Skip Laurel shrubs growing along the backyard fence line just east of the 'Gold Rush'

Curious: what did you end up planting? We have a similar situation; we live in a very dense, urban area and want privacy in our single family house from the adjacent apartment building. We'd like to plant along the fence line something evergreen, dense, tall--20-30'-- with columnar habit and a narrow base. The only thing I see out there that grows fast enough is the skyrocket juniper, which won't do well in Seattle's moisture. Can't deal with bamboo. We've had it before and it either flops over or spreads like mad and becomes a massive property value liability. What was your solution?

So long story short: here I am, ready to get my trees next week and still no holes dug yet. Winter in Colorado was unusually awful and I was buried from December through 3rd week in March. Had a couple weeks to dig holes in nice weather -- didn't, wife said too early ... and it's been crap weather since (rain all day, or snow). So this weekend the weather MIGHT cooperate ... being 50's on Sat and 60's on Sun ... so I'm thinking about getting a ditch witch with a 36" hydraulic auger on it and doing the following for each hole I dig. I have a bad back -- yeah, it's been repaired -- but I'm using the machine mainly to make things easier on myself and yes, faster. The hole locations have been determined on my plans, which have changed a bit since I last posted the plans here ... and I still need to mark them in the yard and make sure they avoid the utilites [ which have been marked ]. THe buried utilities should be 19" down (or more). When I trench my entire back yard for sprinklers, I never had a thing and was working with a 10-14" deep trench. The utility company said a minimum of 17", but that was done before my builder back-filled and additional 6-18" on top of the original grade. So I'll rake back the mulch in a 4' (or 5') wide circle around each hole location, then auger out the 3' diameter hole, only down 12-15" max. This is for the dirt to have somewhere to go without ruining too much mulch in the process. [Q: should I even worry about my 4-5" of mulch?] The plan would be to rake the mulch back around the tree (not too close) after the trees are planted. Then I'll back fill the outer 10-12" of the 3' hole by hand (shovelling) the edges to create a bowl shape hole which is full depth in the center 12-15" and then tapered to the edges with the back fill. Do I need to rake the mulch back, or could I just auger into the mulch and all? Any ideas or comments appreciated. THe local "colorado experts" still say amending is normal around here, but I'm tempted to skip it and let the trees finds happiness in what I have. I could mix some mulch in if that would help. My mulch is about 2 years old and nice and black (soil-like) on the bottom. Planting about 15 bare root trees and 15 balled and bulapped. I'm having to kind of guess on the actual size of the trees since I really don't know till next week when I go to pick them up. They are advertised as 1.25" caliper. Thanks, Scott

For your wide canopy tree I'd recommend Calliandra surinamensis, the Surinam Powderpuff Tree. It blooms virtually all year, makes lacy, light shade, is an evergreen with lovely foliage, and can be easily pruned to make the shape you need. You can read about this tree, plus 259 others, in an excellent hardcover book by the San Diego Horticultural Society called "Ornamental Trees for Mediterranean Climates: The Trees of San Diego." The book has over 500 color photos of the trees in garden settings, plus tons of easy-to-use information. Here is a link that might be useful: Ornamental Trees for Mediterranean Climates