Suburban Redwoods

Coast Redwoods make the San Francisco Bay Area landscape unique.  If you have never seen them in the wild, check out preserves like Muir Woods National Monument or Big Basin State Park.  But you need not find a preserve to enjoy lacy arching branches reaching to the heavens.  Just look up.  Way up.  Redwoods decorate highways, shopping centers, and suburban yards all over the Bay Area.

These Redwoods at UC Berkeley are not taller than the Campanile, but they're tall.

Redwoods (not very old!) adorn a parking lot in Los Gatos.

Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are the tallest trees on earth, so scale is an issue in suburban plantings. Very upright, Redwoods are a great choice for screening parking lots and high rises.  My dad insisted on planting them in our suburban front yard, a sketchier choice.

Forty-five year old redwoods in front of the Sunnyvale house where I grew up.  For perspective: a 2400 square foot house with 2.5 car garage is hiding behind those two giants. That's one way to handle a western exposure.

Their natural range extends along the fog belt of the west coast from Oregon to a few canyons in Big Sur.  While they thrive in the north coastal rain forest, they are also adept at harvesting moisture from fog in areas with low rainfall.  With some supplemental water, they can survive in coastal Southern California (though they don't like salt.) Given their scale, I won't be planting any in my yard.   They might do well in low spots in our neighborhood common area though.  Wouldn't that be nice?

Redwoods, ocean, and fog can make driving in the Santa Cruz Mountains a visionary experience. (From www.redwoodhikes.com)

Driving in the Santa Cruz mountains only miles from Silicon Valley, the Redwood canopy draped in fog creates a fairyland forest, where it seems your car could be sucked into an alternate reality.

Expect the elves to appear any moment. (From total escape.com.)

In Southern California, you will have to find small groves in gardens like the Golden West College native garden and my favorite southern grove at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.  RSABG has named cultivars showing different growth habits– all gorgeous.  But Bay Area Redwoods around every bend say "home" to me.

Redwoods lining Highway 280 in San Jose.  Receiving no special care, they are uneven but have hung on for decades.

Look up!  (From wilderness150.wordpress.com)

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