Since the tree's rediscovery, the dawn redwood has become a popular
ornamental tree in parks and gardens worldwide. ,
Philadelphia Dawn redwood seed arrived at the
Arnold Arboretum on January 5, 1948, In the 1980s, it was discovered that many of the second-generation trees in cultivation suffered from
inbreeding depression (extremely low genetic variability), which could lead to increased susceptibility to disease and reproductive failure. Many sources claim that the original 1947 seedlots came from as few as one tree; however, this has proven to be false. The original seeds did have a wide range of source trees, and the inbreeding depression is more likely to come from self-pollination by isolated trees. However, the total cultivated population still had less genetic variation than the wild ones, and more widespread seed-collecting expeditions in China in the 1990s sought to resolve this problem and restore genetic diversity to cultivated
M. glyptostroboides.
In China Pizhou,
Jiangsu has the longest dawn redwood avenue in the world. The avenue is 47 km long and is lined with trees on its entire length. In total, the city has around five million trees along 400 km of streets. The
Water Forest in
Xinghua, Jiangsu is named after the many dawn redwood trees found there in the park. There is a large collection of dawn redwood in the
Lushan Botanical Garden within
Mount Lu,
Jiangxi.
In the United Kingdom The dawn redwood is frequently encountered across the UK. Growth has been fastest in the south-east, but it is believed the tree may have a longer future in the more humid western regions. The first dawn redwood to be planted in the UK was at the
Cambridge University Botanic Garden. The seed was not from the Arnold expedition, but came to Cambridge directly. The Botanic Garden's Annual Report for 1949 declares: 'Seeds of Metasequoia glyptostroboides, sent by Dr Silow from China to
Professor F T Brooks, germinated freely. Three of the seedlings have been planted out: one in the Yard at the back of the Range and two beside the Pond (now called the Lake).' The tree on the south-west side of the Lake is still living, as at July 2019. Seed distributed in the 1940s to Hillier Gardens near Winchester, UK, have thrived and are now the emblem of the gardens. A sapling planted in
Stratford Park, Stroud in 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II is now a large tree. The
TROBI Champions are at
Woking Park,
Surrey: 22 m height by 144 cm
d.b.h,
Clare College,
Cambridge: 21 m × 129 cm (planted 1949), and
Wayford Woods,
Somerset: 32 m × 99 cm. Several
cultivars are available providing a range of different foliage colours and textures. The cultivar 'Golden Oji' has gained the
Royal Horticultural Society's
Award of Garden Merit.
In the United States Dawn redwoods thrive over a large, crescent-shaped region that encompasses the eastern and southern United States, as well as on the West Coast. Many institutions, such as the
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, have fine specimens. The
H. H. Hunnewell estate in Wellesley, Massachusetts, has two specimens (numbers 29 and 34) that date to the initial distribution of seed by the Arnold Arboretum in 1949. There is a small grove of dawn redwoods at
Bailey Arboretum in Locust Valley, New York, including one tree which is claimed to be the world's largest by diameter. The
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation has begun planting dawn redwoods on sidewalks throughout
Manhattan and
Brooklyn, this link maps them.
Washington, D.C.'s Urban Forestry Division has planted hundreds throughout that city, including all of the street trees in the 1800 block of Redwood Terrace, NW. A dawn redwood grows outside of the Rosicrucian Research Library at
Rosicrucian Park in San Jose, California, as a memorial to
H. Spencer Lewis. It was planted in 1950 from a seedling from the lot brought from China by Dr.
Ralph Chaney, and donated by an unnamed donor to H. Spencer Lewis's widow for this purpose. The
Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden on the
UCLA campus includes a dawn redwood. In North Carolina, a private endeavor is working to create a
Metasequoia reserve on 50 acres of uplands in the
Sauratown Mountains. Portland, Oregon, is home to some of the oldest dawn redwoods in the U.S. One specimen planted in the
Hoyt Arboretum in 1948 was 103' tall at last measurement and in 1952 earned the distinction of being the first dawn redwood to bear cones in the Western Hemisphere in 6–8 million years. A dawn redwood was planted at
Southern Illinois University Carbondale in
Carbondale, Illinois by William Marberry in 1950 and remains there. In 2005, Oregon made dawn redwood the
state fossil. ==Gallery==