We have a large dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) in our front yard that had a difficult summer. A few of the larger branches began to sag and then break off. I called our local tree experts at Sperry's Tree Care to come and take a look.
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| Before |
They concluded that most of the trees leaves and branches were growing on the very ends of the limbs. Perhaps they had been shaded out by the large maple we had cut down earlier in the spring. The weight from the growth was causing the branches to sag and eventually break. Their solution was to trim off the ends of the larger branches and remove a few of the damaged limbs.
Sperry's work crew came out last week to do the work. It took three guys a couple hours to trim the entire tree. My boys loved to watch the men climbing around the tree and chipping up the debris. The tree looks great now and I've very glad we did not attempt doing this ourselves.
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| After |
What's cool about this tree? I love the latin name, Metasequoia glyptostroboides. It rolls off the tongue like an incantation. It is deciduous, the needles turn a rusty orange in late autumn (it just beginning to turn color in the "after" picture), then it drops all the needles for winter and leafs out again in the spring. Before 1941, this tree was only known by fossils from the Mesozoic Era (the age of the dinosaurs). Then a stand of the trees were found in China. Since then it has become a popular ornamental tree. It's our own living fossil!
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