Is this for a group planting in a remote area / forest or residential area / yard? You cannot have redwoods and landscaping. I learned... the expensive way.

Part of the yard, with only a lawn.

There are no redwoods that will do well in southern California. There is a small grove in Carbon Canyon, but it's a struggle to keep them alive. I've heard they had to put misters in the area to increase the humidity. It would be like trying to raise tigers in your backyard. You can put in a ton of effort, but they won't be happy.

Redwoods and lawn don't mix, either.

There are some very nice looking ones (70' tall) w/i a mile from my home. There are 2 that I remember from my childhood. They are in parkways with a road and sidewalk on either side. They are the same height now (25') as they were 40 yrs. ago.

I lived in the Sacramento area for 4 yrs. and remember how beautiful many of them were. Plenty of nice one's on the way to Venura a couple of days ago, but also several that were either in poor shape or dieing.

The one's near Carbon Canyon were doing well until our last several years of drought. I didn't hear about the misters. There up on the hiking trails, so I have no idea how they are getting any irrigation at all from misters.

Yes, certain isolated stands or individuals seem to do well, and it's a mystery to me. I'm in Petaluma, just a few miles from their native range, and they don't much like it here. Without supplemental water, they just look scruffy and awful. And the comment above about not being able to garden around them is spot on. You cannot plant anything under them or close to them. No plant can get in a contest for water with a redwood and win. And the roots are at surface level so even if you somehow were able to hydrate the companion plants or lawn, there would be no soil in which to plant them.

You can certainly try. I am stubborn about stuff like this sometimes (less so now than I was 25 years ago though). So pick the cultivar that is best suited to your conditions (although I think it's mostly a rounding error) and make sure to irrigate, irrigate, irrigate. A young redwood isn't nearly so much the challenge that a mature one is. The few that we have here were planted by the previous owner about 35 years ago and I wish he hadn't, but too much trouble and expense to remove them.

Orange County is a lot drier than northern California, so redwoods will be much more of a challenge here.

As far as plant communities go, Orange County is mostly chaparral and coastal sage scrub. Oaks and some pines are native here and redwoods are native north of Santa Barbara (approximately). With the possibility of water restrictions coming back, have you considered a tree that would not require so much irrigation?

The small native groupings of redwoods that continue down the coast well south of the main area, stick up incongruously out of the chaparral are in ravines with streams running through them. And near the ocean.

Yet if you look at the Sunset Western Garden Book they have coast redwood zoned as being suitable many miles inland from where you are. And the fact that you see ones of some size (for planted trees) there shows that they are able to do well.

Probably if you are able to water yours you will have little if any trouble getting them to grow. Try the cultivar (or seedling) you like the look of and don't assume that you are in an area where you have to choose particular ones in order to get them to work out.

I'm thinking I should give up on the idea. When I lived in NORCAL, I planted 3 redwoods but moved a yr. after that. I'm not sure my space is large enough here, also.

I thought it would look nice in the middle of the yard, and would then be a tall, dark background for a couple of Fall foliage trees on either side.

I'll have to think of another conifer, fast growing 40-50'H by 15-20'W for my Zone 22.

Ideas welcome, & thanks for all the advice!

Interesting thread. I'm a NorCal native who now lives in San Diego. But I grew up in the hot interior valleys of the Bay Area, where our native landscape was dry grass, valley oaks, and chapparal, so we didn't have native redwoods. Still, lots of people planted redwoods, and they thrived even in the hot, dry summers (because of cool, damp winters). Coast redwoods, like most plants, are adaptable to climates outside of their natural habitats, which is the same reason you see a lot of palm trees in San Francisco, for example, and San Diego actually used to have many beautiful redwood specimens in city parks and office parks. In just the past five years, however, almost all of them suddenly died from the prolonged drought and hotter than usual temperatures. Nevertheless, I still see many beautiful, mature, large coast redwoods in and around LA, especially Bel-Air, Brentwood, and Beverly Hills, where there are mature private gardens (it's also wetter there, comparable to San Jose, but that's not really very wet either). And even more surprising, they seem to thrive even in Fresno, where the summer average is near 100f, the humidity is virtually nonexistent, the sunshine is relentless for many months, and the annual rainfall is as low as San Diego and noticeably lower than LA. So they ARE drought-tolerant in theory. AND they can tolerate heat. BUT... one of the big differences in success seems to be the native soil. NorCal and Central Cal tend to have heavy clay soils that are better able to retain moisture from both natural rainfall and irrigation, whereas SoCal has a lot more rocky soil. That means with dense clay soil, you could probably get away with ten inches of average annual rainfall, plus modest irriation, but where the soil is less dense, you may need at least fifteen inches of annual rain fall plus irrigation.

Now I've seen coast redwoods suffer during hot dry spells in NorCal as well, but those may not last as long as in SoCal, so the trees are able to recover a bit in between. But as long as you give them the water they need when they're not getting it, then they should be fine.

One big mistake people make is cutting off the bottom branches to give the trees a tall bare trunk. That's the wrong thing to do. Make sure the wide bottom branches are there to shade and cool the soil beneath the tree.

I was at the Huntington not too long ago and the neighborhood nearby (San Marino?) had quite a few redwoods that were dead or dying. We asked at the Gardens and someone told us that the water was high in minerals that did not agree with the redwoods. Anecdotal and imprecise, so fwiw. Redwoods in their native environment have abundant fog, which provides water that they take up through their leaves. A significant part of the water that the trees receive comes in through their needles. No fog means that the trees need way more irrigation. The foliar-'drinking' is the way that they get through the dry summers.

Sure, you can grow them outside their native range. They may even do ok. You just have to understand what you're up against. And a big reason that I would not plant one as the OP suggested is the issue of trying to garden around them.

pecci I would consider Arizona Cypress, fast growing, about the size you want and drought tolerant. But most cultivars have a bluish gray tint so that may not be the look you want.

Lots of great info here. Yeah, I also think the alk. & salts in the irrigation water and the soil make it alot tougher. When you figure that in drier areas and drier years that poor irrigation water must take the place of the lack of rain water.

Kentic, I have considered AZ Cypress and also Eastern Cedar. I have a potted Eldarica Pine, also that I will consider. I'm kind of an "in w/unusual kind of gardner, so I am attracted in the trees you rarely or never see in my area.

Sarah, did I see your name over at the American Conifer Society? It's a nice website.

A smaller alternative that I like for a SoCal home garden is the Leyland Cypress, which, when planted as a grouping, gives a similar appearance to young redwoods. Very dense and fragrant.

Yes I am the ACS website editor (and Western Region President). Our next gathering is next month in Yakima Washington.

Pine, wine and high desert

There are 2 coastal redwoods someone planted in Kernville (actually 15 minute drive from Kernville up the mountain at 6000’, this is in the southwestern sierra nevada foothills). They are about 100’ tall and are not thriving, but rather surviving.

It's amazing they got to 100'.

I'm not an expert on southcal but, have you considered giant redwood instead? They are more drought tolerant. For a coastal redwood, shade is the key, if moss and ferns can grow then a redwood is possible, but certainly it's risky and a lot of water to spend on it.

Yes, It's not dark green, however, I considered 'Glauca' because of it being narrower than other sequoia's.

The ones in my neighborhood planted circa 1980 are all dying or have died. So Cal is too hot and too dry for them now. Please choose something else. Once upon a time when OC was still farmland and not all paved over, there was more marine layer and thus cooler more moist weather, enough so that sequoias survived though did not thrive. Those days are gone.

You make an excellent point, but the largest noticable indifference, is the decrease or even absence of inland fog. It is rarely seen north of the 405, nowadays. The reason is due to our asphault jungle. It retains then disperses heat during the night and prohibits condensation.

I am now considering my potted Eldarica Pine. Mine is quite slim and I hope it continues that trend rather than many other broader ones I see. I thought of a Canary Island Pine, but they alxo become quite large, even larger than redwoods in SoCal.

Long established planted coast redwoods have been visible all over coastal California communities in the past, Climate Change will in fact be what is affecting how widely these can be kept going (without a lot of watering) there now.

Up my way dying of numbers of individual native conifers of some size in the wild due to the change in our summer conditions is being seen.

Common Trees of Los Angeles

https://www.treepeople.org/sites/default/files/pdf/treemap/Common%20Trees%20of%20LA.pdf

My brother had planted a Redwood in Patterson ca..and it always grew in summer with burnt tips. But,the tree did grow and makes shade. It was planted in a grassy strip along the driveway.

I didn't like the look of it myself.

With all the great warm and almost frost free weather...you could do better then a skinny Redwood in soucal.

Heck you would be happier with a Eucalyptus deglutpa with its flashy bark and tall narrow form ( like a redwood) or plant a Norfolk Island Pine..the columnaris type is especially Redwood like and loves soucal.

Leave the Redwoods for Redwood City-lol.

Regarding my last post. The 2 coastal redwoods are growing here.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_Sierra,_Kern_County,_California

They are at about 6000’ elevation. Also the last time I saw them was 04 when my friend who lives there pointed them out to me. They were probably less that 100’. it has been awhile. One was right where someones driveway met the road and it had been nailed by cars a number if times.

Interestingly enough, probably less than 20 miles from these coastal redwoods (as the crow flies), you have sequoias.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/sequoia/recarea/?recid=79825

And just past that, my favorite place in the world, the needles. Lots of ponderosa pine here.

The Needles. Best granite in the world (somewhere behind the right most rock formation is the George W. Bush sequoia.). There is no better (rock climbing) protection than a sling around a conifer growing out of a crack. Bomber.

Embothrium - I don't think the warmth is the issue, especially in OC, Cal. Redwoods are growing throughout the Central Valley, incl. Bakersfield. In Bakersfield the ave. Summer highs are upper 90s, mine are mid 80s. Their ave. annual precip. is less than 6.5". My town doubles that. Outside of our recent drought yrs, the tmps haven't been that much warmer, overall. I had recently read where experts are saying that the reds are looking healthier in their natural habitat, due to warming.

I believe the differences are the lack of natural rainfall during the Winter. As a result of that, we haven't water to waste, so folks are using less on their lawns and plants. Since thr reds roots can expand 100' from the trunk, that would mean that even if you were to continue to water as you have, and your neighbor's around you (who share your roots ... do not, well that probably effects performance & looks.