Redwood Tree Guide – 3 Species and How to Grow Them

A redwood tree is one of those plants that turns a piece of ground into a landmark. These are the tallest, the most massive, and among the longest-lived trees on Earth, and once you have stood beneath one, the idea of growing your own is hard to shake. The catch is that “redwood tree” is not one tree. It is three very different species, and only one of them is a realistic choice for most home landscapes.

Get the species right and you get a magnificent, low-maintenance specimen that will outlive you. Get it wrong and you plant a 300-foot forest giant 15 feet from your foundation. This guide sorts out the three redwoods, shows you how to tell them apart, covers where each one can actually grow, and walks through planting and care so you can pick the right tree for the space you really have.

The three trees people call a redwood

All redwoods belong to the same subfamily of conifers in the cypress family (Cupressaceae). They share reddish, fibrous bark, soft feathery needles, and a deep evolutionary history, but they split into three living species native to two continents.

Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is the tallest tree species on the planet. The record specimens top 360 to 380 feet, and the tree lives along a narrow fog belt from California’s central coast into the southern tip of Oregon. It is evergreen, fast, and almost entirely dependent on cool, humid, foggy air.

Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) is the most massive tree on Earth measured by trunk volume, even though it stops a little shorter at around 280 to 320 feet. It grows wild only in about 80 scattered groves on the western slopes of California’s Sierra Nevada, between roughly 4,000 and 8,000 feet, where winter brings deep snow. The trunk is staggering. The General Sherman Tree once dropped a single branch 98 feet long, the size of a respectable tree on its own.

Dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) is the smallest, hardiest, and most useful of the three for gardeners. It is native to a small region of central China, not California, and unlike its evergreen cousins it is deciduous: the soft needles emerge bright green in spring, deepen over summer, then turn a glowing bronze-russet and drop in fall. It was known only from 150-million-year-old fossils and presumed extinct until living trees were found in China in the 1940s, which is why it carries the nickname “living fossil.”

If you only remember one thing, remember this: coast redwood is the tallest, giant sequoia is the biggest, and dawn redwood is the one you can probably plant.

How to tell coast redwood, giant sequoia, and dawn redwood apart

You rarely need a botanist to identify which redwood you are looking at. A few features give each one away, and most of them are visible at eye level on the lower branches or a young tree.

Needles. Coast redwood has flat, two-ranked needles arranged in a single plane like a green feather, built to comb moisture out of fog. Giant sequoia has short, pointed, scale-like needles that press tightly around the twig, an adaptation to conserve water in dry Sierra air, often compared to pipe cleaners. Dawn redwood has soft, flat needles in opposite pairs along the twig, fern-like and feathery, and it sheds them every autumn.

Cones. Coast redwood cones are tiny, rounded, and under an inch long, easy to lose in the needle litter. Giant sequoia cones are roughly the size of a chicken egg. Dawn redwood produces small, long-stalked rounded cones.

Bark and base. All three have thick, fibrous, reddish bark. Coast redwood weathers from reddish-brown toward gray and charcoal with age and often resprouts a ring of clones around a fallen trunk. Giant sequoia bark glows a warmer cinnamon-orange and the tree usually does not resprout. Dawn redwood develops a distinctive fluted, buttressed trunk base and reddish, shredding bark.

Habit. Coast redwood has a slender, columnar silhouette with dense foliage high in the crown. Giant sequoia is broader and heavier, with massive branches and open space between them on old trees. Dawn redwood is neatly pyramidal with a single straight central leader, the most “Christmas-tree” shape of the three.

One last tell: if the tree drops all its needles in fall and stands bare through winter, it is a dawn redwood. The other two are evergreen. (Bald cypress, a relative, also drops its needles, but it grows its buds on top of the twigs and sends up “knees” in wet ground, while dawn redwood carries buds on the undersides of the branches and has a fluted trunk.)

Quick comparison of the three redwoods

Where each redwood can actually grow

Climate is what makes or breaks a redwood in the landscape, and the three species could hardly be more different.

Coast redwood is the fussiest. It wants the mild, humid, fog-fed conditions of its native coast, generally USDA zones 7 to 10, with temperatures between about 35 and 95°F and a lot of moisture in the air. Coastal trees pull as much as 40 percent of their water straight from fog. Plant one inland or in a dry climate and it may survive, but it will be slower, smaller, and prone to stress, scorch, and pests. If you live in coastal California, western Oregon, or the maritime Pacific Northwest, this is the only redwood that truly belongs to your region.

Giant sequoia is a bit tougher, hardy to roughly zone 6 and tolerating winter lows near 15°F. It comes from snow country at elevation and likes cool summers and sharp, well-drained soil. It tolerates drier air than the coast redwood, which is why it sometimes succeeds in inland and even European gardens. Still, it is an enormous, slow-to-settle forest tree, and few yards can host it responsibly.

Dawn redwood is the cold-hardy outlier and the reason most gardeners outside the West Coast can grow a redwood at all. It thrives in USDA zones 4 to 8, shrugging off winter lows down to around -20 to -30°F and summer heat into the mid-80s°F. It is not picky about humidity, fog, or soil chemistry, tolerates road salt, pollution, urban conditions, and occasional flooding, and transplants easily. From the Midwest to the Northeast to the upper South, this is the redwood that works.

These trees are not for small yards

Here is the honest part most plant tags skip. Even the “small” redwood is a forest tree. A dawn redwood routinely reaches 70 to 100 feet tall and 25 feet wide, and the other two are far larger. None of them is a foundation plant, a privacy hedge, or a tree for a city lot.

Plan on at least 20 to 30 feet of clearance in every direction, well away from the house, the septic field, the driveway, power lines, and your neighbor’s property. Trees planted too close and forced to lean toward light become a real hazard. A redwood grown at an angle reaching for sun can topple in a windstorm and crush whatever is below it. If your usable open space is smaller than a generous suburban backyard, you want a dwarf or compact cultivar rather than the straight species, or a different tree entirely.

How fast does a redwood tree grow

Quickly, which is part of the appeal and part of the warning. Coast redwoods are among the fastest-growing conifers anywhere when conditions suit them. Dawn redwoods are nearly as eager: under good conditions they commonly put on 2 to 3 feet of height a year, and a happy young tree with full sun and steady moisture can run several feet in a single season. Giant sequoia starts slower but builds enormous bulk over time.

That growth rate is exactly why spacing matters. A whip you plant this spring can be a two-story tree within a decade and a landmark within your lifetime. Buy the space before you buy the tree.

Planting a redwood tree

Whatever species you choose, the planting basics are the same, and getting the site and the hole right matters more than anything you do later.

Timing. Plant in fall after the leaves drop (for dawn redwood) but before the ground freezes, so autumn rains help the roots settle, or in late winter to early spring before bud break. Dormant, bare-root, or balled-and-burlapped stock establishes especially well.

Site. Pick a spot with full sun (six or more hours), room to reach full size, and soil that stays moist but is not permanently waterlogged. In hot-summer regions, a little afternoon shade protects young dawn redwoods from leaf scorch; in cool regions, full sun gives the best fall color.

Soil. All three prefer loose, humus-rich, slightly acidic, well-draining soil. Dawn redwood is the most forgiving, tolerating a pH from about 4.5 up to neutral and handling clay or sand; coast and giant types do best in the 5.5 to 7.5 range. Avoid compacted, alkaline, or chronically soggy ground.

The hole. Dig it two to three times as wide as the root ball and no deeper than the root ball is tall. Loosen the surrounding soil so new roots can spread. Tease apart any circling or pot-bound roots so they do not girdle the tree later. Set the tree so the top of the root ball sits level with the surrounding grade, never mounded over or buried at the trunk. Backfill with the native soil, water deeply to settle out air pockets, and top off any settling. Resist the urge to dump rich compost into the hole; these trees do not need heavy fertility to start.

Mulch. Spread 2 to 3 inches of shredded bark, pine duff, or leaf mold over the root zone, kept a few inches back from the trunk. Redwoods love a cool, evenly moist root run, and mulch delivers both while suppressing weeds.

Caring for a redwood tree

The good news after a careful planting: redwoods are about as low-maintenance as a large tree gets, and a well-sited dawn redwood may need almost nothing once established.

Water. The non-negotiable need is consistent moisture, especially for the first two or three years. Keep the soil evenly damp, watering deeply whenever the top few inches dry out, roughly twice a week for a new tree in dry weather. Coast redwoods want the most water and humidity; giant sequoias need less; dawn redwoods sit in the middle and become moderately drought-tolerant once their roots are deep, though they still resent prolonged drought. None of them wants to stand in stagnant water, which invites root rot.

Fertilizer. Generally unnecessary. A healthy tree in decent soil does not need feeding. If growth is poor, run a soil test through your local extension office before adding anything, and topdress with compost rather than reaching for synthetic fertilizer. Overfeeding does more harm than good.

Pruning. Almost none required. These trees grow naturally to a strong, single-leadered, pyramidal form, and cutting the side branches off a young redwood spoils that shape. Limit pruning to removing dead, broken, diseased, or storm-damaged wood, ideally in late winter or early spring. As a tree ages and storm damage moves out of reach, hire a certified arborist rather than climbing after it.

Cold protection. In the coldest end of a dawn redwood’s range, give young trees a thick winter mulch and, in an exposed site, a frost blanket for the first few winters. Do not panic when it drops every needle in fall, that is the tree going dormant, not dying.

A living history of fire, fog, and deep time

Part of what makes a redwood worth the space is that you are planting a piece of natural history. Relatives of today’s coast redwoods grew alongside dinosaurs in the Jurassic, roughly 160 million years ago, and the lineage has survived ice ages, droughts, and continental upheaval ever since. Individual coast redwoods can live more than 2,000 years, and giant sequoias longer still.

That longevity is engineered. The bark is thick and rich in tannins, which makes the wood strongly resistant to rot, insects, and disease, so much so that diseases are nearly unknown in wild old-growth redwoods. The same thick bark and high, open crown let mature trees survive fires that would kill most species. Fire is not merely tolerated; for the giant sequoia it is essential, opening the cones, clearing competing growth, and preparing bare mineral soil for seedlings. Coast redwoods take a different route to fire resilience, resprouting vigorously from basal burls and root systems after a burn, which is how they form the “fairy rings” of clones you see around old stumps.

Their root strategy is its own marvel. Despite their height, redwoods root surprisingly shallowly, only 6 to 12 feet deep, but the roots spread out as far as 100 feet and interlock with the roots of neighboring trees, so a grove effectively braces itself against the wind. It is a reminder that these trees evolved to grow together, in groves, not as a lone specimen on a lawn, and that a single garden tree is something of an experiment the species never planned for.

Redwood tree pests and problems

Planted in the right place and watered well, redwoods are remarkably trouble-free, and most problems trace back to a poor site rather than a specific bug. Still, a few issues are worth watching.

Root rot (Phytophthora). The most serious threat in a garden setting, and almost always a drainage problem. Trees in soggy, poorly draining soil can develop crown or root rot, showing up as sudden dieback and mushy, discolored roots. It often arrives on infected nursery stock, so inspect and isolate new trees. Prevention, good drainage, and a healthy root zone matter far more than any treatment; advanced cases are usually fatal.

Scale and spider mites. Occasionally scale insects or, in hot dry spells, spider mites feed on the needles and cause yellowing and reduced vigor. Keeping the tree well watered and unstressed is the best defense; a dry, struggling redwood is the one that gets infested.

Bark beetles. Historically redwoods were considered nearly immune to pests, but a warming, drier West has let bark beetles begin attacking stressed conifers, including redwoods. They tunnel under the bark, leaving oozing sap, tiny exit holes, and sawdust-like frass. There is no good cure once they are in, so the strategy is prevention: steady moisture, careful planting, and no mechanical wounds to the trunk.

Other nibblers. Dawn redwoods in particular are about as pest-resistant as landscape trees come. Deer largely leave them alone, and the odd Japanese beetle or mite rarely does meaningful harm to such a fast grower.

Across all three species, the pattern is consistent: a redwood in the wrong climate, the wrong soil, or with the wrong watering is the one that gets sick. Match the tree to the site and you will spend far more time admiring it than treating it.

Choosing the right redwood for your yard

For the great majority of home gardeners, the answer is the dawn redwood, and it is not a consolation prize. It grows across a vast swath of the country in zones 4 to 8, shrugs off cold, heat, pollution, road salt, and tough soil, asks for little care, grows fast, and delivers something its evergreen cousins cannot: feathery spring green that turns a brilliant bronze-russet before falling, giving you four seasons of interest in a single tree.

Reach for a coast redwood only if you live in its narrow comfort zone of coastal California or the maritime Pacific Northwest, where fog and humidity can support it. Consider a giant sequoia only if you have a cool climate, sharply drained soil, and genuinely vast space, more an arboretum or estate tree than a backyard one. Outside those situations, both will disappoint.

And if even a dawn redwood is too much tree for your space, do not force it, choose a dwarf or compact cultivar instead. Selections like ‘Gold Rush’ (golden foliage, about 50 feet), ‘Miss Grace’ (a weeping form near 10 feet), ‘North Light’ or ‘Schirrmann’s Nordlicht’ (compact, variegated, around 5 feet), and ‘Amber Glow’ (roughly 40 feet) bring the same ancient bloodline and fall color to a footprint a real yard can hold.

Pick the species your climate and your space can honestly support, give it room and water for the first few years, and you will have planted a living monument, a tree with dinosaur-era roots that will still be standing, and growing, long after the garden around it has changed many times over.