Very nice for a cultivated specimen.

tj

I thought the same.

Growing at ~1,500 ft. is a little out of its preference.

Looks good!

Giant sequoias are not uncommon in my area. PNW weather seems to be well suited for them :) In fact, you can find quite large, relatively mature specimens in area parks and gardens. They are even found as street plantings to screen the highway and traffic noise in my well-wooded, semi-rural location.

GG, I saw a really big giant sequoia on the grounds of Univ of Utah in Salt Lake City! I would guess that it has been watered at times, especially when it was younger.

When in CA, I was pleased to see coastal redwoods planted extensively along some major highways, tho I wonder how the highway depts would deal w/trees that eventually would become very large.

Per Google street view, the tree in the OP was there before the parking lot (the paved lot was apparently installed in early 2018). Prior to that the tree had a bit more undisturbed soil around it, but there was a large gravel parking area on one side of it. Street view from June 2018 showing the new parking lot (looking from the opposite direction):

Street view from April 2012:

A street view of some nice sequoias at the Hillsboro, OR courthouse (Aug 2024):

The street view from 2018 looks fuller and healthier than the one from 2012. But maybe with the improved bed around it with flowers, they maybe irrigate that area more than they did in the past.

U of U is in SLC, not utah state. :) I do not think a sequoia could grow in Logan. A little colder there than SLC. I am surprised a sequoia could grow in SLC, frankly

That is not the "Waldo Park Sequoia", but one of the smallest city parks in the world (12' by 20'), Waldo Park, is also located in Salem Oregon, and it consists of a single Giant Sequoia tree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldo_Park

L Clark, you're right -- University of Utah is in SLC. It was so long ago, but I know the sequoia w/branches curling down near to the ground was in a park-like area there or very near there in the northeast part of the city where I was staying. At the time there had just been a 25" snowfall there and nearby Park City had 85".

Are giant sequoia more tolerant of cold than coastal redwood?

Some general searching reveals many specimens of S, giganteum all around the SLC area.

https://www.giant-sequoia.com/gallery/utah/

eta: to my surprise and it does sound like they need irrigation in that area. ;-)

Another I learned about in the last few years:

https://lakeblufffarms.com/

Bill, kinda fascinating link. There are a heck-of-alot more/bigger giant sequoias in Utah than in eastern states. Maybe dryer climate reduces the root-rot/fungus issues. And Michigan isn't as continuously hot and humid as other eastern areas.

Yup,

The elevation of SLC is over 4000' and the annual snowfall is ~345" (>28ft) and it is on the west side of the Rocky Mountains <chuckle> so S. giganteum has a lot going for it in that area.

Annual rain fall is only 15", a little on the dry side but not a real desert either.

Someone told me they have snow melt reservoirs in the hills for water.

Not sure of the soils there but an established tree should do fine.

When we came through that area from the west last summer and seeing the vast expanse of Salt flats, I wondered if anything could grow there, but after a tour of the city, I was impressed with the variety of trees people had growing all around town.

eta: summer humidity levels are quite low.

Bill, pretty much every living plant needs irrigation out west. people out east just dont understand.

I'm in the same boat LC. I don't get a quarter of what they get out east. The 10-year annual rainfall charts for the US says we get 24-28" annually. HA! That will be the day.

We maybe get 16" on a good year which happens here about 1 in every 5-6 years, and have had years when we've had almost nothing.

I'd feel right at home, watering trees in SLC, well, except for a few peripheral issues. ;-)

I was traveling near Fallon, NV once (a true desert area), and we came upon a tiny village around a grove of large cottonwoods -- they stood out like a sore thumb. There was small place to stop there, and I asked about the big trees, and they said there was deep groundwater there and the cottonwoods had been able to send roots far down the sandy ground to tap the groundwater.

The arroyos that come down the west slopes of the Wasatch Mnts near SLC are surprisingly filled w/trees including large cottonwoods. Alot of snowmelt traveling down them during the melt season, much more than the amount of precip there would make (much more precip above there in the mountains). Same as the area just east of the Sierra Mnts in NV -- real productive farmland stretching a couple miles east of the base. Very productive farmland hugging the Shosone river on the east side of Yellowstone Park like around Cody, WY.

beng, yes, anywhere there’s a bit of water there are trees. Riparian areas in arid regions are my favorite places ever! I spend a lot of my free time fishing in these areas. thwy are always teeming with birds, insects and other wild life. they feel so full of life. magic

"Are giant sequoia more tolerant of cold than coastal redwood?" Yes, much more cold tolerant but they may be more inclined to hate more coastal, HUMID, eastern climates, they have a better chance in upstate NY or lake areas of of the Midwest In my NJ yard (7a/b), No issues with Metasequoia and I could probably have a Coastal Redwood survive the season, my Monkey Puzzle is very happy here. I have no more space though!

come on, who couldn’t squeeze in one more tree reaching potentially 200 ft??

"Are giant sequoia more tolerant of cold than coastal redwood?"

Yes, much more so. Zone 5 vs. Zone 7. This thread is suffering the typical breakdown in understanding when people start using common names loosely. Beng titled the thread correctly!

Sequoiadendron - Giant Sequoia, Giant Redwood, Big Tree, Wellingtonia in the commonwealth

Sequoia - Coastal redwood, California redwood.

Just saying Sequoia or Redwood is ambiguous. The Wiki article doesn't say 'Sequoia' is used as a common name for Sequoia, but that's certainly something that I heard people like hotel workers call them when I was on the coast! Otherwise they just call the local trees 'redwoods', not 'coastal redwoods'!

As I noted before in my probably lost California trip reports, Sequoia are commonly planted in places like Davis & Sacremento, but I'm not sure why. With a few exceptional outliers in places with a lot of access to water, like the sides of lakes or ponds, they look like crap that far inland. Interestingly, I don't remember seeing any Sequoiadendron in places like that...but that shouldn't be taken to mean anything at all. I might just not have had a pattern recognition in place for them. Not sure we even have anyone anymore like Sara Malone who could address that definitely.