Anyone growing redwoods or sequioas, especially outside California?

I know we’re focused on fruit here, but on a whim I bought a couple of giant sequoia and dawn redwood seedlings and am thinking about trying to grow them either in containers or in ground here in MA/NH. The underlying thing uniting all the stuff I like most to grow is “stuff that you would be surprised to find here,” whether it’s at an unusual latitude (potted tropical plants), a long lost native (pawpaw, maybe dawn redwood if you want to go on the MYA scale), etc.

I stayed away from the coastal redwood since I know I can’t replicate the fog here. But evidently they have giant sequioa and dawn redwood growing in a number of parks and backyards in New England (and of course at the Harvard Arboreteum).

Just curious if anyone is growing these. Did a quick search and seemed like there had been scattered discussions but not a dedicated thread.

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Im in CA and have one giant sequoia.

I dont know if there are any in the eastern states, but there’s one thriving in Manistee, MI.

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Planted one in 2005 and it died even before winter. KY

The trees mentioned are numerous in Portland, Oregon.
Here they can get over 100 feet tall.
Portland has been hardiness zone 8 over most of those tree’s local history.

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I’ve seen redwoods growing in the Reno, NV area, zone 7. They are fairly large mature trees

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Ive thought about doing a redwood or giant sequoia bonsai. Decided against it though, since it seemed cruel to constrain a plant with the potential to grow so massive into a tiny pot.

If theyll grow in the ground in your climate though, go for it. If I could grow one like that here I would.

I have a small coast redwood. I plan to plant one or two more, along with some more of the rarer Hysperocyparis species also native to California.

In my area (eastern NC) coast redwood does well, there are numerous specimens that are already many decades old and decent size. Wilson and Durham have the oldest ones I know of in this state, about 80 years old or so. Here’s a street view of one of the bigger ones in Wilson, it’s probably about 5 ft wide at this point, though less than 100 ft tall–high winds prevent them from getting much taller than the surrounding trees.

We get much more rain than California (them needing fog is a myth, they only need it in California because they don’t get summer precipitation there), so it is likely that they grow faster here even if wind and higher summer temperatures mean they can’t grow as tall and our humidity means they won’t live as long. The ones out here have survived 0 F, but I doubt they can take much colder than that.

Coast redwoods are pretty adaptable and do just fine in cool Mediterranean, in maritime, and in subtropical climates, and can even grow in montane tropical climates. There are numerous trees that, while all still very young overall, are already catching up to the big ones in California. They thrive in New Zealand (already 240 ft tall), France (205 ft), Portugal (190 ft), the UK (185 ft), and grow in places as diverse as Argentina and Switzerland. INaturalist shows specimens in Chile, North Africa, Cyprus, South Africa, and even Hawaii and, apparently, they can even grow in Colombia. It’s probably only a matter of time before Tasmania regains the crown of tallest tree in the world, just this time with a stolen species. :smiley:

Giant sequoia are more cold hardy, but can’t take excess summer heat. Amazingly, there seems to be some growing along the Baltic sea in Demark and Poland. There are sequoia planted in the milder parts of New England, as well as in Appalachia and the Mid Atlantic, but they don’t thrive. In North America, they’ve been planted as far north as Vancouver in Canada. Parts of Chile and Argentina and Australia and New Zealand, as well as South Africa, have proven very good climates for them. But far and away the best region for them seems to be the UK, with Scotland having many really impressive and very fast growing specimens. Other locations growing them include around the Black Sea in Bulgaria and Romania as well as possibly southern Ukraine and Russia, in northern Italy, and Switzerland, where it is actually that country’s tallest tree. Overall it is fairly adaptable so long as summers are not too hot and humid.

Dawn redwood is probably even more adaptable than coast redwood, and while it can’t take as much drought or heat, it is much more cold hardy. These things grow all over the place. China, Japan, Taiwan, much of the central and eastern US, Canada, the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Ukraine, Armenia, even one supposedly in Nepal. Much like (I would argue anyway) coast redwood, dawn redwood is probably better adapted to various areas outside its native range than its very limited native range itself. While all are still quite young, the broadest in the world is in Germany and the tallest is in the US in PA.

Pretty closely related to the redwoods are Chinese swamp cypress and the two or three bald cypress species. While not technically in the immediate redwood family, they are quite closely related. Chinese swamp cypress is native to China and Vietnam, but apparently grows as far south as Malesia and Singapore, effectively on the equator according to INaturalist which is crazy because they also grow in the UK, and I’ve personally seen one in zone 7b in Raleigh NC. The bald cypresses are closely related and grow natively from central Mexico all the way up into the central and Mid Atlantic US. They grow freaking everywhere too, most of the US, into Canada, down through Mexico and Guatemala, all of western and central Europe, the Balkans, North Africa, Georgia, Chile, Argintina, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, all over South Africa, and in China, and Japan. And contrary to expectation, they are not obligate wetland species. Indeed, in my area, they are a common street tree because their roots can take extremely compact soil and poor soil aeration like a champ.

Spieltime: The old adage about plants being perfectly evolved for their own little native area is more often than not bollocks. Most populations end up where they are as much by accidents of geography and climate change as anything else, especially in regions with lots of mountains. Redwoods fit the bill–native to three tiny regions, they’ve proven themselves perfectly capable of growing darn near worldwide, sometimes doing better elsewhere than in their native environment.

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I try to grow them from seeds. All of them die because of birds pecking on them or they just die for unknown reasons. It could be the soil and the heat here. So, I picked up a couple of 2 year old trees instead and planted them in the ground. The first winter I thought they may not make it because the leaves changed color. Then, I read it’s normal for the youngsters to change color during winter. They turned back to green during Spring. This Winter they remain green. They are going strong after 1 year in the ground. I have sandy soil that drain well and I throw some food scrapes plus hay. I let them break down before I planted them. In addition, I fertilized them lightly.

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You can grow them in a microclimate even if they don’t generally grow well in your area. As an example, I have some land adjacent to the Buttahatchee river with a steep slope down to the water. Canadian hemlock thrives in that area near the water because it is humid and does not have problems with drought or excessive heat.

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Red woods are not unheard of here and in North Florida. I have not seen any Sequioas other then Bonsai.There are numerous folks growing edible pine nut cultivars. But Georgia is a rough place for pines. As the diseases are used to chewing on many generations of specifically bred disease resistant pine cultivars. We have a weeny Maximillian Pine we got at a flea market. Should have bought a few for pollination. But it is a very slow grower, If I get it a partner; maybe in 20 years we can sample some pine nuts…lol

The grower we bought it from said they banned export of them in Mexico and you can not buy them anymore.

What a great post! Wow!

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I’m trying to grow more dawn redwood from seed this year. I’ve mentioned mine before on the forum. It’s pretty darn big. Someone talked to me at a McDonald’s one day and said they were going to visit the big Dawn Redwood in Brownsburg one day. They had no idea it was in my yard. One day I’ll figure out the height and girth.

It’s magical!


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The OHIO champion dawn redwood grows in Cincinnati in Spring Grove cemetery. Zone 6

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I have a large dawn redwood here in zone 6a in Illinois. I planted it in 1993. It is a beautiful tree.

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Great tree! It is good to see a giant with room to do it’s thing.

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We’re still pretty far from the planned opening date, but there’s a large park in the NC mountains that was planted with acres and acres of dawn redwoods decades ago. Should be a really cool experience once they start allowing tours in 2035.

ABOUT.

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I think this is getting off the California type of trees.

Ours were definitely hard pressed thru the summer. They needed water as much as the veggie garden or they would shrivel up and die. Once in the ground they seem to need lass water by year 4.

My son likes to get seedlings. I had to tell him firmly no more. I have know idea what type. They seem to sucker a lot too, worse than a plum or apple. The suckers my sons pulled up never skipped a beat either being put in their own pot. Now we just clip them since we have way too many.

My father in law in Kirkland WA has an enormous one in the lot next to him. As you approach his neighborhood it’s the tallest tree in the sky by far. The trunk is 5-6 feet across. Anyway, it is a messy big seed spreader. My father in law weeds out hundreds to thousands of them all over his lot and driveway margins. They pop up everywhere. Amazing seed spreading ability. If anyone wants some in the later spring he fills his city yard waste with them to the brim…

These suckers all regrew this winter.


This was last years seedling, 5 ft tall now in a pot.

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I bought a 2 inch seedling at Tractor Supply a year ago at Christmas and it grew to be four feet tall by summer. I planted it outdoors in early fall and it succumbed in about two weeks.

You should make a dime selling bare roots to us unknowing folk elsewhere. I’d find a spot near our bigger pines on the property. We are not far off culling many of our lesser pines. Which are not special, are haphazard in the property. They are getting clobbered with borers anyway since they are often too close to each other. But thankfully the Robber Flies seemed to have done a number on borers the last few years. Robber Flies-The angry Honey Badgers of the insect world.

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