Species · Deciduous trees like maple and elm
Dawn redwood
Metasequoia glyptostroboides
Dawn redwood grows remarkably fast for a conifer-relative and develops a distinctively fluted, buttressed trunk base with age, along with soft, feathery deciduous foliage that colours bronze in autumn. Rediscovered alive in China only in the 1940s after being known solely from fossils, it remains an unusual choice for bonsai and a real conversation piece.
Care at a glance
- Watering
- Never let it dry out fully in leaf. Roughly every 2 days in spring, 1 in summer, 2 in autumn and 7 in winter.
- Light
- Full sun to light shade.
- Winter
- Hardy once established; loses its leaves and rests through winter. Protect it when the forecast drops below -8 °C.
- Feeding
- Every 14 days, Apr to Sep, paused in the hottest weeks.
- Repotting
- Every 2 to 3 years, as buds swell, in Mar.
- Growth
- Fast growing. Hardy in zones 5 to 8.
The work calendar
| Work | JJan | FFeb | MMar | AApr | MMay | JJun | JJul | AAug | SSep | OOct | NNov | DDec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prune | Mar | Apr | Nov | |||||||||
| Wire | Jan | Feb | Mar | Nov | Dec | |||||||
| Pinch | May | Jun | Jul |