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BPfeil

Yamadori
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Hey everyone!
I got to bring home a new project from work today. It had been sitting in our nursery for a couple of years now, so they gave it to me for free!
Pretty excited.
Its a goldrush dawn redwood20170622_164900.jpg
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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There's one in the landscape near my folks home, it is lovely, bright gold in spring slowly greening up over summer. Is it grafted? Or was it a cutting, or from tissue culture?

I think this has potential, nice, do more photos to show details.
 

BPfeil

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There's one in the landscape near my folks home, it is lovely, bright gold in spring slowly greening up over summer. Is it grafted? Or was it a cutting, or from tissue culture?

I think this has potential, nice, do more photos to show details.
I believe that it was a cutting. Not 100% sure though.
Here's some more photos:
20170622_182440.jpg 20170622_182452.jpg 20170622_182510.jpg
 

BPfeil

Yamadori
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Great deal. Which nurseryo_O?
I work at Gaia landscapes in Corvallis. We have our own private nursery for our customers. I'm able to collect decent material while on the job all of the time, so if there's something in particular you're looking for let me know and I'll see what I can do ;)
 

ConorDash

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Cool looks good. I like the bark texture.

I can't comment on the species in regards to the techniques to best apply next but I think it's a good chop and grow candidate.
There are no good significant branchs lower down and the trunk is very straight.
So whether you are trying for formal upright or not, you'll need to chop.
Just when chopping think of whether you want trunk movement in the future or not, and if so, which direction. Still need some luck with adventitious buds but the direction of your chop will influence movement too.

I'm quite sure redwoods suit upright formal, so that's a plan if you want it.
It's got tiny bit of wiggle in the base but you could repot at an angle to straighten it, if you wanted.
 

BPfeil

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Cool looks good. I like the bark texture.

I can't comment on the species in regards to the techniques to best apply next but I think it's a good chop and grow candidate.
There are no good significant branchs lower down and the trunk is very straight.
So whether you are trying for formal upright or not, you'll need to chop.
Just when chopping think of whether you want trunk movement in the future or not, and if so, which direction. Still need some luck with adventitious buds but the direction of your chop will influence movement too.

I'm quite sure redwoods suit upright formal, so that's a plan if you want it.
It's got tiny bit of wiggle in the base but you could repot at an angle to straighten it, if you wanted.
Thanks! I'm definitely going for a formal upright, as that's how redwoods grow naturally. I think I will give it another couple seasons of growth to thicken the trunk some more, then chop it back. There are two good sacrificial branches fairly low down on the trunk, so those should help the process. I'm going to read into backbudding on this species so I dont chop and kill it!
 

rockm

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Dawn redwoods are not the famous North American Redwood (Sequoia). The are related, but aren't the same. The Chinese Dawn redwood (metasequoia) doesn't get nearly as big as the U.S. Pacific Coast sequoias. It is MUCH smaller and not nearly as picturesque in maturity, tending towards a vanilla pyramid of green. FWIW, both sequoia and the dawn redwood are cousins to the bald cypress. I think Dawn redwood shares more in common with Bald cypress than sequoia...including bonsai design.
 

BPfeil

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Dawn redwoods are not the famous North American Redwood (Sequoia). The are related, but aren't the same. The Chinese Dawn redwood (metasequoia) doesn't get nearly as big as the U.S. Pacific Coast sequoias. It is MUCH smaller and not nearly as picturesque in maturity, tending towards a vanilla pyramid of green. FWIW, both sequoia and the dawn redwood are cousins to the bald cypress. I think Dawn redwood shares more in common with Bald cypress than sequoia...including bonsai design.
I know, and I'm thankful that this tree doesn't want to be hundreds of feet tall lol.
So are you saying a formal upright would not be the best style to go with?
 

rockm

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I'd take a look at how some bald cypress bonsai are designed and take that into account in your thinking. Formal upright is not an easy style to pull off and with the branching habits of this species, it won't be any easier. FWIW, This species has very strange branching. old trees tend to be kind of ugly--the photo below is an old growth Dawn Redwood in Hubei Province in China...
 

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BPfeil

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I'd take a look at how some bald cypress bonsai are designed and take that into account in your thinking. Formal upright is not an easy style to pull off and with the branching habits of this species, it won't be any easier. FWIW, This species has very strange branching. old trees tend to be kind of ugly--the photo below is an old growth Dawn Redwood in Hubei Province in China...
Interesting. I see what you mean. Most of the bald cypress I've seen were in a formal upright style or group planting. I was told that these dawn redwoods have a tendency to grow outward, which would definitely make it difficult to bonsai. I'll look into various styles.
I know its a difficult tree to bonsai, but it was free so I'm going to give it a shot.
 

rockm

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The branches on just about every older landscape dawn redwood I've seen are arrow straight with an upward 20-30 degree tilt. If I grew this species (and I have avoided it because I've found bald cypress performs better as bonsai), I'd aim to grow it out in the ground for several years and chop the living crap out of the top and the branching to force some interest into both. Flat top BC and variants of the mature form of Bald Cypress (there are many) could be adapted to this species. There are a few pictures here that could also work--(no I don't have any affiliation with the vendor, they just turned up in an image search.
http://www.chinesebonsaigarden.com/dawn-redwood-bonsai-tree/
 

BPfeil

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The branches on just about every older landscape dawn redwood I've seen are arrow straight with an upward 20-30 degree tilt. If I grew this species (and I have avoided it because I've found bald cypress performs better as bonsai), I'd aim to grow it out in the ground for several years and chop the living crap out of the top and the branching to force some interest into both. Flat top BC and variants of the mature form of Bald Cypress (there are many) could be adapted to this species. There are a few pictures here that could also work--(no I don't have any affiliation with the vendor, they just turned up in an image search.
http://www.chinesebonsaigarden.com/dawn-redwood-bonsai-tree/
I think the style on this one would lend itself more to the tree that I have (assuming it backbuds well) I have several bald cypress at the moment, so hopefully I can work on them while this is growing to have a little experience with this type of tree. Its definitely going to get a hard trunk chop in 2-3 years.dawn_redwood_bonsai4.jpg
 

rockm

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If you have bald cypress then you're good to go ;-) I've worked with both Dawn Redwood and BC. I came to the conclusion that Dawn Redwood is the idiot cousin to BC. It's not as graceful and it tends to be very hard to refine. I threw mine out a while back in favor of BC.
 

BPfeil

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Dawns seem to work better as forest plantings.

View attachment 150295

An old planting once at Bonsai West.
Unfortunately I only have the one, but perhaps I could do some air layer cuttings from the tree? There's certainly plenty of branches that I don't need. If I went this route, I was thinking maybe a bunch of smaller trees surrounding the main trunk. Thoughts?
 

herzausstahl

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If you have bald cypress then you're good to go ;-) I've worked with both Dawn Redwood and BC. I came to the conclusion that Dawn Redwood is the idiot cousin to BC. It's not as graceful and it tends to be very hard to refine. I threw mine out a while back in favor of BC.

Similarities is why I like Dawn Redwoods. Biggest reason I'm going to try them over Bald Cypress is the cold hardiness.
 
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