When I was a kid I saw unusual trees growing in one of the city parks in Saint Joseph, Mo. As I grew older I would ask my grandfather about certain trees and the biggest tree I had seen was an old Cottonwood a few houses away. I never asked him about these trees and I saw a few similar trees for sale in a catalog. I then knew that they were Dawn Redwoods. I visited those trees every time I was visiting family members.
I decided one day to take photo’s of these great trees. So I spent some time looking up into the sky just to try to figure out just how tall were they? I gave up and just decided they were very tall and had huge trunks. If you take a look at these very mature trees you will notice that the oldest branches grow up and stay that way. They never sag as a pine tree or spruce would. I have yet to see a Dawn Redwood bonsai tree styled in the way they grow naturally. I do have a large Dawn Redwood bonsai and I am going to style in its natural style and the branches will be moving upward and not down ward like most conifer bonsai trees.
Another thing to look at on these mature trees is the trunk. Notice that the large branches form a bulge on the trunk all the way to the soil line. You can see it on almost all of these trees. One tree does not show this characteristic to much. The bonsai tree I have is now starting to show this characteristic and I plan to show that off. You can see this all over these trees, I think it is what makes these trees so unique.
Creating a Dawn Redwood Bonsai – Part 1 by Heron’s Bonsai New 01-18-2021
Take 2 – Dawn Redwood Part 2 by Heron’s Bonsai New 01-18-2021
Metasequoia glyptostroboides Bonsai New 07-17-2020
A couple of the trees have some natural dead wood on them, look closely and you can see it.
I will be adding more to this page when I have time, for now here are the mature trees:
