Beautiful composition and trees!!! Thanks, great information!

Hi Candice. It’s the 17th of June, 2024, and I’m getting ready to prune my DR forest. I prepped the 3 year old trees in pond baskets for an additional year, and then hard pruned them above and below ground before planting the forest. The trees are ready for their first pruning and thinning of the season after the first flush of growth. I had to re-watch this episode. It is still the most comprehensive primer on DRs out there, and I thank you for leaving it (and your channel) up. I’m a fan of @Dave’s Bonsai, so I can still see how your forest has developed. I don’t know if you still read the comments, but if you do, thanks again and enjoy your new direction. If you ever make it back to Bonsai, know that I’ll be watching.

Hey Candice! I've been growing my own Dawn Redwood forest. I've been so afraid to touch it this season fearing I'd ruin it. Then i thought of your video that I'd watched awhile back. I'm so glad i waited, and now feel a bit better about moving forward thanks to you! I really miss your videos, along with the knowledge i gained from watching them. I hope you, and your family are doing well. Like the last comment, if you ever decide to return, I'd immediately tune in! Peace ✌🏿☮️

So glad you posted this, I didn't know any of this information. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much! Best Dawn Redwood advice I’ve received.

I now have three or four Redwoods really putting on some great ramification but only after 15 years of mis-treatment through lack of understandng those clear rules you've stated. I have to thank Ryan Neil for first helping me understand the key to effective secondary and tertiary branch development. Holding off pruning those green fronds is so difficult sometimes!! Love your approach. Cheers

Hi Candice, really useful video. May I make a suggestion; you give great direction on how and when to prune, and you show where the cuts should take place. If you could show video of you making the cuts, and the before and after, this would help solidify the learning. Thanks.

great info, thanks , lovely forest you have there

Thanks for the great info. Very well explained 👍

After 45 years trying to learn what I could about bonsai, in all respect, I tip my hat to your, dare I say scholarly lesson on Dawn redwood pruning care. Never had a better explanation of what to do with this species. Thanks and regards, Dan Bialik, Raleigh, NC.

Great video

I’m a huge Dawn redwood lover. I’ve planted several in the past year and can’t wait to see their growth.

Great information, learned loads. Lovely composition, beautiful tree's 😍👏👏

Great info and that display of trees is beautiful. Now I have to make a new oval pot. 👍🫶😉

Def going to watch this video a few more times, thank you for the great info

Super glad I found your channel ❤ looking forward to seeing more videos!! Happy bonsai 🌳

This is so incredibly helpful. I will be pruning my Dawn Redwood based off of notes from this video for sure. Thank you so much!

Have been growing these for a few years but it’s really helpful to have that great info well explained. Thank you from Bondi!

I would LIVE to have this all in writing for future reference! Fabulous info. Thank you.

Just watched again. You girl are brilliant 👍👍👍😎 thank you 🙏

Thanks for this great video! I got my first DR this year which prompted the purchase of 4 more... quickly becoming my favorite bonsai species!

Thank you so much for this! The Dawn redwood is one of my favorite trees and now I feel armed with some knowledge how to develop them correctly.

Such good information that I couldn't find anywhere else! Thank you!

I been looking for dawn redwood care/answer for my "cluster X " trees....you explained quite straightforward an very understandable steps to working with this tree...keep on keeping on..!!!

Thank you for the information. Did not know any of that. I have a very old and large DR that I’ve been working on the ramification for quite awhile but haven’t been entirely pleased with the progress. This new information will be very helpful. Thanks! 😁

Bravo! Excellent tutorial. Thanks, keep growing

THANK YOU!! very helpful for me. i just found a redwood grove with a shit ton if vegetative offshoots that i stole some of and have no idea what to do with

Absolutely stunning landscape. Thank you for being so clear, having just bought a 4 tree forest for my husband.. he may kill me. 😂

Needless to say-what a lovely composition!

Very good informative video, thank you for the clear explanation. Enjoyed watching and learning, thank you and greetings from Belgium!

Nice tutorial on the dawn redwood, some really good info I must say. I plan to treat mine this spring with your technique. I’m pretty confident success will prevail, every thing you said makes sense. Glad to be a new subscriber, thanks

Thank you so much for sharing this. Very newbie bonsai enthusiast here who just gifted a redwood seedling. Now I have a valuable reference and some confidence to know what to do. Or rather, what _not_ to do this year 😉 I will be watching this video over and over in the coming years. Thank you!

Thank you so much for this video! I purchased a dawn redwood this last spring and I just had a feeling it was a strange tree, I decided to leave it alone at the time until I could learn more. I'm so glad I stumbled over this video! 😊

That's a great video, I really learned a lot from it, so my dawn redwood group will surely benefit from it :)

Awesome video! :)

Great video. Thank you. I have redwoods on a local park that I go to every year and take a branch for cuttings from. I have my dad a six inch cutting from last year but he said to me today that because it was from the bottom of the branch and I had chopped the top that it wouldn't grow. I definitely felt a bit "duh" when you started taking about selecting a leader! So I'll tell him about it and hopefully he'll get his seven foot tree that he wants in a few years.

My bible for dawn redwood. Thank you SO much!

Thanks for this video. I wasn't sure why I wasn't getting ramification. These trees sure are tough.

I have 9 of these now, so thank YOU for the help!

Great video ❤️

Great explanation! I'm just starting seeds now. So watching whatever I can...

Wow that was an amazing explanation. Thank you for sharing all that with us. I greatly appreciate it. I'm so glad I didn't trim any of my trees yet. 🙌

Fantastic 🌲👍🌲

Wow, this was extremely helpful. Thanks so much

This was SO helpful thank you!

Thank you for sharing

Thanks for this tutorial , very helpful.

Bookmarked for the future in case I ever get a dawn redwood! 👍

This is Great!! Thank you Thank you!!!!

Thank you.... 🙏 😔 🙏 A very informative video.... 🙏 🖖 🙏

Dope! Very succinct thanks!

Thankyou 🙏 I have a big one in a pot in the garden, now I feel more able to make the right decisions with it.

Thank you so much for posting this video, I am new to the redwood game and feel like now at least I might not completely f*ck it up 😅

Great tutorial - thanks!

my dawn redwood was about 7ft tall, got it on sale because top 5ish feet was dead. trunk is now about 1.5 inches across and its only 3ish feet tall. i got lucky on the find and because of your tips the tree has a bright future. thanks.

Thank you , bonny lass

Massive thanks 👍❤️ That‘s essential information. I wish you could make those videos for all kind of trees. 😊 Develop each tree in it‘s best way. Love your style. 😘 I wonder there aren‘t many viewers up to now, but I‘ll bet this will change soon. 👍

Excellent instructions. Do you plan an update on these trees ? Would love to see it.

Just bought a group from a local nursery this has been a fantastically helpful video, thank you. Please can you make a similar video in the autumn, sorry fall.

Great species specific video, great information, thanks for posting. Where did you educate yourself on this species, I’ve been growing theses for years and never come across this specific information? I’m planning a statement piece this coming spring using many of my current Dawn Redwood crop, I’ve got some fairly large trees for a rustic forest. Your information will be very useful, thanks.

Asking about bald cypress because they are so similar. When deciding it's time to prune, how red does the branch have to be? A lot? Just A little? I have fronds that have bifurcated and they are turning color, but not entirely hardened. BTW, I have attached the five rules in my Bonsai Album database. Thanks.

Hi Candice, amazing information and beautiful tree composition. I'm now adopting your 5 rules and hope my badly treated 3 year old redwood will develop as it should. I have a coastal redwood(sequoia sempervirens), do I treat this with the same rules? Shane.

Thank you! That was so helpful, especially the part about letting the branch redden before pruning. Did you start your forest from cuttings or seedlings? I have a forest started but I think I let the trees get too big before I put them in the forest grouping and now I want to start another with smaller trees so I can do a better job from the beginning.

great! do you know what age metasequoia start to produce micro/megastrobili?

Hi Excellent instructional video. I’ve just been given a small forest grouping of 5 trees. The tree heights are around 12 inches (300 mm). The trunk bases are around half inch thick but there planting is about inch and a half to two inches apart in a 6 inch shallow oval pot Would you recommend separating them out to develop them individually? They seem far too close together to allow any development of branches. Any repotting tips. I’m in the UK Thanks

What kind of Bonsai medium works best for Dawn RWs? Any kind like you would get at Lowes? A friend of mine uses "Farm Ocean Forest Soil".

Very helpful info. I will be using this this year on my tree. Curious... at what time do you take your apex chops?? Thanks for the video and info!

do these rules work with tomato plants? I am growing them in a AMAZON knock off aerogarden for the winter

Brilliant video. I’m having trouble with my tree in sunny England. Only top growth and all lower branches have died. Should I trunk chop this year ? Before spring. Thanks

Dang i thought i wanted to start into this maybe but she kinda scares me i cant lie 😢

Nice grouping and kudos for you for getting a comment from Nigel! Did you grow your grouping from seed? I'll revisit you later...

Rookie here. Does this info roughly translate to the Coastal Redwood? Going to be my first shot at bonsai!

Hi, After watching this video I see you are very knowledgeable on Dawn Redwoods. Can you please help me out, my little grove seems to be struggling. Not sure if it's over or under watered. Is there an email where I can send you some pictures. Thank you in advanced for your time and consideration! 😁

Where did u get the landscape and pot for the forest?

I bought a dawn redwood which was about 4meters tall, which i cut back to about 1.5meter. it has some leaf-less branches but has buts along the tree itself. It is still in a big nursery pot with original nursery soil. Do u recomment to transfer it to bonsai soil and reduce the roots or keep it in there till it made branches with leafs?

Interesting. I have a big dawn redwood bonsai but i only do my pruning in the winter though, so to minimise the mistakes. Do you prune it in the summer so as to allow more sunlight reach the interior branches? Or does it help the second flush in the autumn?

Hello! Question, so I can do some structural pruning in the winter before the buds open? If so how much can I prune? Thank you. Love your video and the technical talk. Fuckery is my favorite jejeje!

Hey Candice, i don't want to be a pest but, what does it mean if the frawns aren't fully extending. Mine are kinda curly. I'd love to send you a pic of it if possible. If not i understand.

Thanks it was really helpfull! So i have one Dawn Redwood in a bigger Pot and he´s doing very fine .But in the other hand my small forest that i got recently, some of the top tips and leafes dried out so hard in one day you can crush them into dust between your fingers. It was not a hot day or windy either. You have any experience with that thing? I thought if they too dry the first thing they to is getting brown. Do i need do water a reddawn forest more than 2 times a day maybe i dont want the roots to rot. Sorry for my bad english ^^

Were did you get the pot from ?

Do you know if the same rules apply to the coastal redwood?

VERY cool. What do you do with the top? Just cut straight across and wait for shoots to grow and then select the shortest? I have a 1ft tall redwood. I dont think it’s a ‘Dawn’ but it’s a Redwood that I just potted this year.

Great tip for controlling branch development. However, aren't the pot you're using here way too shallow when growth is the goal?

Do you treat a swamp cypress the same way as the dawn redwood?

That’s how you super crop weed too. This bonsai stuff is just like weed.

Hi, I just bought 2 Dawn Redwoods from a mom and pop nursery. They are very skinny, half the size of a pencil, but they are 3ft tall. I'm brand new to all this and don't know what to do to start as a bonsai. Should I cut the top down about a foot so the trunk would thicken instead of just growing taller? Oh they are in a 1 gal. pot. Thanks for any info you can give. Well I just browsed thru your videos hoping to find something for newbies like myself but couldnt find anything. Can you recommend a channel for someone like myself?

Hello! I am waiting on a new 3-4 foot Dawn Redwood! I am wondering if I can keep it in a container until I find a permanent home for it. I know some trees need an air pot so that the roots aren’t restricted and become circular. I don’t want to keep it in a container for a few years just for it to topple over when planted in the ground. I currently have a rainbow eucalyptus in an air pit for this very reason! Thanks!

Can you truck chop a Dawn Redwood to get trunk thickness the way you would a maple? Would it backbud strongly if it's a healthy tree? I'm thinking of a situation where you basically take a tall tree down to an 18" stub without any branches. Would a DR respond well to that technique or would it likely kill the tree?

When do you chop the apex to control the height?

Can you apply to pruning Coastal Redwoods or is this specific to dawn redwoods?

Subscribed because clusterfuck. But for real, awesome video and I learned tons of stuff! Me and three young Redwoods (one mother, two kids) say thank you! Will try do manage my own clusterfuck from here on out. I repotted them again this second season/spring, and I removed buds super early in spring to direct growth and get that staggered structure from the get go. Is that ok/good if I know I wont be needing a branch there?

The one thing missing seems to be where to prune.