Think I’m going to plant a giant sequoia up here in 5b. I’ve become more confident that the conditions here will limit its height to be non-problematic for many human lifetimes. More concerned with quality of soil (sort of an acidic, clay and sand muck) and winter protection.
Has anyone had any success propagating cuttings of giant sequoia? Want to start some backups just in case it really hates the location…
edit: now to figure out if anyone has zone-pushed a coastal redwood if other conditions (especially irrigation) are right…
@weatherandtrees - niche question - do you have any sense of max wind speeds up by us? I know we’re somewhat sheltered; just reading that giant sequoia have “medium to low” wind tolerance so just checking in on that…
(dawn redwoods should better, assume losing the needles helps a lot)
I’ll try some fresh cuttings from mine this spring, assuming it survived and shows any signs of life…
Aren’t most of them growing on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada? They must get some decent wind at times in those big onshore flow events…especially given how high they are above the rest of the canopy.
Excluding a rare severe weather event, I would think the max wind there is 50-60mph, but if you’re sheltered it’s probably closer to 50mph.
It’s a little confusing. Jonsteens Nursery lists their wind tolerance as low: Giant Sequoia | Small Tree Seedling – The Jonsteen Company. If you google around, there’s some received plant wisdom that the groves are robust because the roots grow together, but singletons may not be; on the other hand, I’d be planting this in an area where there’s a lot of roots and rocks buried around, so maybe it would intertwine with those? Not sure what to think…
Most of the ones growing here in NC have endured hurricanes on several occasions. Admittedly, one of them did lose its top, but by and large they seem to handle the wind well, and the one that did lose its top regrew, and probably more importantly it didn’t fall over, the top just snapped off.
Not in 5b. Sheltered zone 7 is probably as cold as you could get with coast redwood. It’s by far the least hardy redwood.
Dawn redwood though, that one’s very hardy. Giant Sequoia is pretty hardy too but I believe dawn redwood is the hardiest.
Picked up coastal redwood, bald cypress, and japanese cedar seedlings (one of each) from Jonsteens. Also made cuttings of the dormant sequoia that I got from them last year to see if I can propagate. Will try that with the dormant (in ground) dawn redwood once I get a chance.
Have been listening to some interviews (including on Bonsai Mirai’s podcast) with Steen Christensen, the founder of Jonsteens. Interesting guy.
Have been very happy with their plants. The “small” coastal redwood seedling I bought from them for $9 was 16 inches tall with healthy roots and foliage.
I have a neighbor down the street that sells hundreds of small redwood trees in small containers maybe ,5-1g. They sell like crazy too. I might get one for bonsai since they don’t do good being dug up but not sure if I can do an air layer off a wild tree would probably be better with no tap root to deal with idk.
