I planted this Dawn Redwood in November, 2016. I was going through some anticipatory grieving about my aging dog, and wanted it as a reminder of him when he was gone. He is buried among its roots, as is his companion dog and at least one chicken. I like to think that the tree contains some of Charlie's atoms.
Here was the tree as planted 11.16.16. I removed the potting soil and burlap / clay mix, and washed off the roots. I pruned off crossing and potentially girdling roots. With so little root mass remaining, I wondered if it would survive.
The tree did survive, and thrived. Here it is almost exactly four years later. I keep some fencing around it to prevent deer damage to the trunk. That might no longer be necessary but doesn't hurt anything either. It got no additional water at all this year, surviving as a natural member of the ecosystem.
Dawn Redwood is a tree that existed at the time of the dinosaurs. It is different from native redwoods, in that it drops its needles each winter. They were thought to be extinct, with only a record in fossils and coal from millions of years ago, until discovered in a forest in China in the 1940s. Before dropping, the needles change color to a brownish yellow, which they are starting to do now.
