Hi hey.
I have a Dawn redwood still in the dev phase and I can’t decide if I should push the branches up and out, or down with raised tips.
Would appreciate hearing views from you guys?
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hmm, well you could make it look like a swamp at this stage? Short and the branches just slightly move up and out? with a broader canopy and shorter lower branches. Just an idea ; )
Thanks Thomas, do you have any example pics of the style you are referring to?
No problem 
I know you don’t have a large base right now but I was thinking something along the lines of:
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Thanks but I dont think I have the base flare to achieve this look
true, it will take time but you could get there.
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I’m stuck in the same predicament with a pretty decent dawn redwood, one I have shaped as a typical redwood shape but the other is going to be a “bonsai” or flat top, trying my hardest to find old inspiring images of dawn redwood and try and stay true to speciesI suppose it’s down to the trees qualities it could make an interesting creeping swamp bank curved flat top or a classic bonsai 
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Seems like the second tree could make a good flat top of you jog the apex out to the right more?
man, those are very cool. Way better material from what I have! I really like that left one. Yeah I can’t really find any ancient forms but everything I’ve seen suggests that they kind of grow like a mix of Bald cypress and thuja/cypress species.
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Pictures of old Dawn Redwood will be very difficult to find. It was felt to be extinct until the 1940s when a region containing a small number of trees was discovered in south-central China. Most of the older trees outside of China are from a 1947 seed collecting trip sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum.
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Yup, it’s true and this is why I only deduct that it grows a lot like the taxodium family. They even look so much alike on a bud, bark and growth habit level. It even arches new shoots back towards the trunk which is a characteristic of Bald too.
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Thanks man I’ll get sketching with yours
I may even just keep the little lower right branch now 
it’s will add tons of Taper to the tree, thanks @Amitdesai1978
Wooop 
Looking forward to seeing it develop
I desperately want a flat top tree
I’d be surprised if there isn’t some buttress under the soil line on yours, have you repotted it recently?
Sorry for hijacking your post loving these chopped off deadwood roots
[DSC_7752|281x500]load://sdAMcOzjoxEnduKMyATgALbbOJ5.jpeg)
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@Amitdesai1978 I think its a decent candidate for a flat top obviously a more compacted rounded shape to start but it will shape itself as it develops, only chopping these twice a year gives you plenty of growth options to look at all summer.
Love your design, but you think this tree is physically too small for such a powerful design.
It’s only around 40cm tall and about 6cm girth at the base
Small and power Would be a nice change from the massive lumps, lots of weepy upward curved branches, love the hanging branches on this tree.
Screenshot_20200401-174308|281x500
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