New Dawn Redwood Tree Destined For Our Backyard

Earlier this Spring, we came home with this tree in the minivan on a normal trip to Menards.  I didn't plan on going there to look at trees, but when we were wandering around the garden center, I noticed this one.  It was over with the rest of the deciduous trees, but it looked different.  I pulled it out of the rack and realized it was a Redwood.  A Dawn Redwood.  I couldn't pass it up.

Dawn Redwoods are one of a handful of deciduous conifers - which means that it forms cones and sprouts needles like evergreens, but it also turns colors in the fall and drops its leaves/needles late in the year like deciduous trees.  And, as you can imagine being a redwood, it gets huge!  Like 100 feet tall.  Fun to think about decades from now, all the trees in the neighborhood top out at like 40 or 50 feet.  Then there's this one massive tree, shooting up double that height.

Menards trees aren't always the best quality, but the prices are always right.  This Dawn Redwood was in good shape and was small enough for us to take it home inside the van.  And now, it is destined for a special spot in our new backyard.  It is too big to fit in the spot that I identified earlier this month on the blog, because it spreads out too far.  There's an opening on the northside pretty close to the rear property line that we're planting this one.

Yeah...Menards.  I'm just as surprised as you are that I found this Redwood tree there.