2020 growing season begins

It has been a long time since the last update. This past winter has not been nearly as bad as the previous one but several sequoias still perished.

The two largest and oldest sequoias suffered opposite fates. One emerged unscathed nice and green with a bunch of new growth as of May 23 while the other one is completely dead.

Previous leader #222 is completely dead with no signs of new green well into June:

This past winter it was surrounded by a foam cylinder but without the top. The idea was to protect it against the direct wind and allow snow and rain to go directly on the tree. Did not work. 

The second leader #220 faired much better but it was heavily protected by Lutrasil fabric layer and by a complete foam cone

#220 is about 20 inches tall with vigorous new green growth throughout the entire volume.

There are four more sequoias that spent second winter planted in the ground, but they have been severely underdeveloped over last two years. One reached the height of over 40 inches at one point but was completely destroyed and started re-growing from practically zero height. This winter it as once again seriously damaged but a few new green shoots appeared in the late spring:

Two very small sequoias from 2016 are still alive but do not exceed 4 inches:

One of the 2016 germinations trees was doing moderately well but the growth has never kicked in like most normally developing trees. #267 stands at about  10 inches tall:

This wraps ups all the sequoia trees that were germinated here in Iowa and spent the last winter planted in ground. 

Three hardy hybrids from Crowfoot Nursery in Oregon were planted in the ground and all were protected by foam. Two of them were Hazel Smith and one was Glaucum. All three survived with varying degree of success. 

The worst is a Hazel Smith that was kept under one very large foam covering along with two other sequoias - Glaucum hybrid and a regular germinated sequoia. The regular one died. The Glaucum one is doing well.

HS in bad shape but there is one good new shoot:

Glaucum is not big but has plenty of new green growth:

The remaining hardy hybrid was planted in a different location and is doing fine. It was one of the smaller HS but surprisingly it did well:

Another patch of sequoias was planted together consisting of only purchased sequoias from a different nursery in Oregon. They were not hardy hybrids but rather normal green giant sequoias. They were all kept under a layer of Lutrasil and a foam cone above. Out of four planted three survived with minimal damage and one died. all survivors look approximately the same:

This wraps up the list of the sequoias that spent the last winter outside in the ground.

This spring the rest of the sequoias were planted in the ground except the seedling germinated in the Fall of 2019 and some 2018.

Here is an example of a HS sequoia planted in this recent batch:

In total there are:

In ground Hardy Hybrids (Hazel Smith, Exceptionally Blue and Glaucum) - 21

In ground Germinated in Iowa regular 2014-2018 - 8

In ground Oregon regular 2016 - 7

Seedlings 2018 in pots - 6

Seedlings 2019 in pots - 33