fox’s Dawn Redwood progression

[Oz_Fox]

I’ve been working my way up feeling comfortable with more expensive nursery stock material, this was my most expensive/ and largest tree so far but I couldn’t pass on it! I was inspired by Dan Robinson after reading his book and tried to jinn as many branches as possible instead of removing. My goal was to create a weathered formal upright, eventually looking like an ancient redwood. The initial styling went great and turned out how I envisioned, no wiring, I feel I’ve done enough (hopefully not too much) for the season. My first tree I feel will be worthy of a progression thread, so here it is!

Fresh home from the nursery:


Post-prune:

 

[BrightsideB]

I’ve been working my way up feeling comfortable with more expensive nursery stock material, this was my most expensive/ and largest tree so far but I couldn’t pass on it! I was inspired by Dan Robinson after reading his book and tried to jinn as many branches as possible instead of removing. My goal was to create a weathered formal upright, eventually looking like an ancient redwood. The initial styling went great and turned out how I envisioned, no wiring, I feel I’ve done enough (hopefully not too much) for the season. My first trees I feel will be worthy of a progression thread, so here it is!

Fresh home from the nursery:
View attachment 501638

Post-prune:
View attachment 501639

Looks like a great start! If you want to take cuttings for a future forest they root very well taking them when the buds start to swell or slightly before. Just protect from any late freezes. That is if you plan to reduce the branches to start ramification at that time.

It looks healthy so I think it’ll be fine. Redwoods are nice tree’s!

 

[Oz_Fox]

other side late yesterday after a long day of pruning

I’m still very much a beginner but I well read if there’s any interest I streamed for a friend on twitch so have the whole prune and tried to talk through my styling decisions.

 

[Oz_Fox]

Looks like a great start! If you want to take cuttings for a future forest they root very well taking them when the buds start to swell or slightly before. Just protect from any late freezes. That is if you plan to reduce the branches to start ramification at that time.

It looks healthy so I think it’ll be fine. Redwoods are nice tree’s!

Thank you! I started to put together cuttings but this tree maxed my real estate on my 12x12 roof so decided I’ll wait haha, hopefully when I reduce again I’ll have more room.

My plan is to over winter in an un-heated garage, do you think that’s the best course of action? I feel it was a large reduction so plan on hopefully repotting in spring and let it grow wild for a season.

The nursery I picked this up from takes great care of their trees so I’m confident it’s got a healthy start. They called me “bonsai guy” for the first time and had a gnarly boxwood set aside for me. I was honored

 

[snowman04]

Going great from my view! Mine got attacked by a squirrel so it's inside for now. Much thinner than yours so I'm trying to get it back to strength. I'll be watching how yours does... I do the garage harbor in the winter as well in Michigan.

 

[pandacular]

I started to put together cuttings but this tree maxed my real estate on my 12x12 roof

ah another rooftop grower! hope you have umbrellas up there

 

[Oz_Fox]

ah another rooftop grower! hope you have umbrellas up there

I stick to mostly pines and junipers for this exact reason! currently shifting the non full sunlight trees around to get the needed shade but next year I plan on building a dedicated shade structure! Haven’t lost any yet but peak of this summer was tough on my maples.

 

[Oz_Fox]

Going great from my view! Mine got attacked by a squirrel so it's inside for now. Much thinner than yours so I'm trying to get it back to strength. I'll be watching how yours does... I do the garage harbor in the winter as well in Michigan.

Thanks snowman!! Good luck with yours!! Hopefully have a good update for you next spring

 

[snowman04]

Thanks! I'll be watching yours as well...

 

[Oz_Fox]

Update on this dawn redwood that is doing well and becoming one of my favorite trees in my collection.

Repotted into one of my few nice pots that I had been eyeing for this tree March 2024:


Proportion felt too tall for the pot so I reduced the top a fair amount very shortly after repotting. I didn’t want to do too much damage right after repotting but I didn’t want the tree’s stored energy to be wasted on unnecessary growth. I was embarrassed I might have killed it so don’t have a photo immediately post chop.

Here is the tree today:

No pruning has been done since the chop pre-growth, I want it to take at least one full season to recover. I plan on wiring the ends of the branches down in the fall while keeping the upward reaching growth of the main branches to try to mimic some of the ancient dawn redwoods I’ve seen. We’ll see how that turns out!

 

[snowman04]

Coming along nicely! Love my dawn redwoods too...