Both those trees are less than 10 years old? Wow. I plan on planting a dawn redwood gold rush here soon. Wonder if it'll grow that fast??

The willow was a stick my neighbor stuck in the ground a year after I planted the metasequoia from Arbor Day. Both are about a decade old.

My Ogon (pictured in this thread) is growing pretty well. It was a 2 foot transplant maybe 5 or 6 years ago. The old pc is off and I can't find my binder. Its growing faster than I thought it would.

Usually not a fan of super fast growing trees. Not only do they take up so much space but generally have pest and/or disease issues.

Dawn Redwood is one of the exceptions. I really do like this tree and wonder what size mine would be if it wasn't for the winter of 2013/2014. It was roughly 15' after 3 years, planted b&b at about 6'.

Nice to see yours growing nicely along with the little one. I bet he'll get a kick out of the pics you save. Soon enough graduation and wedding pictures alongside that legacy tree.

Fall Fiesta Sugar Maple is the largest tree I have going into 2015 as my 5th growing season at the new(er) home. I just took a snap shot from second story so to put size in perspective, I'm just over 6' and have to reach to touch the leaves so call it around 20'. Planted b&b about 8' tall so not bad for a b&b Sugar Maple.

I think of Metasequoia as being quite disease resistant, BUT they do also present some challenges depending on your area. In areas with late Spring frosts for example, they may be damaged as new growth will already have begun. They can also get zapped by premature Spring heat before the wood tissue has fully developed. I have one planted in the back and others in pots waiting to be planted in canopy openings in adjacent woods. By the way, they are also very sensitive to salts (so I have read). If you like this tree, you would probably also like Bald Cypress. Mine has done quite well with decent growth (but not as fast as the DR). I love them both (DR's probably being better for more shaded locations).

Cold hardiness concerns pose an interesting question regarding these two species. DR's have the potential issue with late frosts (BC's leaf out a bit later so not so much an issue). On the other hand, all my containerized DR's survived last winter (a BAD one), but I had to replace all my containerized BC's (the big one in the ground was fine.) Good luck and Happy 4th!

Hey whaas, good to see ya. Nice looking sugar maple! Classy tree and good growth also. You must have provided proper care after transplant.

Not my biggest, but a 10-yr dawn redwood (a bare-root mail-order stick) isn't doing badly:

I have serveral 'Mickelson'/"Shawnee Brave" Taxodium distichum that were shipped from Heritage Nursery during February 2008 and kept in my greenhouse until spring planting time. I bought them as 1-year whips, bareroot, root equivalent to a 2-Gallon container and graft-wood somewhere in 18"-24" length. I'd say they're easily 13-15'.

The cliche that fast-growing tree = fast declining tree, whether due to pathogen/insect/inherent weakness, etc. is well-worn and in need of revision on this board. While there are some obvious examples where this is exactly the case-poplar family, willows, silver maples, a few others, when we turn to the conifer world, that model fails badly and should be discarded. If I fling out just the few examples off the top of my head, I think you will agree, that with lifespans measured in multiple centuries, white pine, coast redwood, Norway spruce, red pine, and perhaps another dozen or so easily demonstrate that that notion is in need of revision, and that in all of these cases, fast growth rate does not equate with short lifespan. Quite the opposite is true. Resinous chemical production is certainly a part of the story, as many of these conifers are quite adept at manufacturing defensive compounds, but it's not the whole story. In any case, this false equivalence should be adjusted accordingly.

+oM

The Metasequoia 'Ogon' I've already posted pictures of, which might even go from 3-4' of growth a year to 5-6' a year if we stay as rainy as we've been. Never fertilized...how's it possible LOL...I thought plants needed to be fed?

interesting plant pics and performance. don't have any 10 year old plants that are that impressive but I have a 4 year old eucalyptus scoparia here in s. w. oregon that is about 18' tall and has put on about 3' of that growth this year so far. FWIW, it's about 20' from a e. nitens that is about 75' tall in 15 years---so I have pretty good growth from a tree that's "too young" and a tree that's "too old", LOL.

Too bad I'm such a tech-dork. Would love to show you all the hybrid larch on my tree farm, the oldest of which are now 5 years from seedling, and which I'd guess to be twenty feet tall. This, of course, in a situation with no human inputs whatsoever. Not a real friendly climate either, primarily due to rather extreme winter coldness.

But I am that dork...............+om

You are not reggae band man.

Dax

Wait, wha? Used to be...now, not so much, lol. Used to be known as a trooper. Oh, gig in Chicago tonight? Sure, sure, I'll be there. (I live 200 miles away from that city). Sure, I do miss some aspects of that part of my life, but all the chasing around, humping gear, getting home with the robins singing.....come to think of it, I used to like all those things too, haha!

Now I'm grampa. Every time I turn around, it seems there's a new grandbaby to hug and love. Not such a bad deal. Thnx bud!

+oM

My Metasequoia glyptostroboides, "Ogon' has also grown really fast. This one is about 8 years old. It's planted in the shade of a species Metasequoia on the left that is about 30 years old. The top has really colored up now that it has more sun.
Behind it is a Cunninghamia lanceolata that is just over 30 years old with two more down to the right in the distance. Pseudotsuga menziesii on the skyline behind the Blue China Firs.
My Larix decidua has grown really fast also.
Mike

So that explains it, lol

nice trees and nice growth for your trees miketann!!!

i think my tulip poplars .. which arent poplars ... have outgrown everything ...

oaks starting at 6 feet are all over 30 feet now ... white.. black.. scarlet.. red ... shingle ... etc ...

the TP from a 3 foot mail order whip ... maybe 40 ...

ken

well, "tulip poplars" (liriodendron tulipifera) are in fact members of the magnolia family and are renowned for their quick growth so no surprises that this tree is a good choice for a fast growing AND long-lived tree. many oaks (red oaks for example) are (despite a bad rep by some folks) can under decent conditions mage good sized handsome trees rather quickly--several of my Mexican evergreen oaks are over 30' tall in 15 years with no care at all (except watering the first couple of years in our very dry summers).

I think all oaks grow faster than is commonly thought. Two swamp whites, planted right on top of a limestone bedrock at my folks' new home (ten years ago) are now roughly twenty feet tall and growing vigorously. These were whips when planted, straight out of Schmidt in Oregon.

+oM

My Dad planted a small container Autumn Blaze (from Lowes) in my yard back in 2006 when we first moved into our home. It has been a joy to watch this tree grow and I started taking a picture each year (around 2008) of this tree and all my others to chart their growth. This has been the fastest by far!

Here comes 9 years worth of pictures..... :)

This is when it could have used some pruning to keep from establishing multiple leaders...... I missed this opportunity as you will see in the pictures to follow (these multiple leaders get very large very fast....)

One of the Cherry Tree's on the right was removed in the Fall of 2013, so the one you see in this picture is a different one.

A few more pics to follow

Here are the rest of the pics.

It has caught up/grown above to the Black Cherry Tree's (which were quite large if you look at the first picture from 2006).

I have another Autumn Blaze in the front yard (clay soil) which was a larger transplant at the time and it has not grown anywhere close to this fast. The soil in my back yard is more of a loam and drains very well.

My largest is London Plane 'Columbia'. The tree is five years old and it is a respectably sized shade tree. A picnic table fits entirely under it. It makes a nice fragrant retreat for reading.

Jeez, longtee. That thing grew like a weed. Very cool photo set.

Dax

Dawn Redwood, Sugar Maple, and White Ash...all growing very quickly. I have a root sucker from a hickory that is also growing quite fast.