Okay, I was in Modesto last week and I checked this out.
First things first: There is no such address as 4023 E Orangeburg. There’s 4021 and next door is 4025, with even-numbered addressed across the street.
I can only see front yards, and trees in the back I can only see if they are tall enough to stick up above the house. JcWoman says the tree was by the back fence.
At 4025, there’s such a tree sticking up in the back. I couldn’t get a better look at it, like to be sure if it’s really a redwood.
There are redwood trees in the front yards at 4021 and 4031, and numerous others around the neighborhood. They appear to be smallish ( 15-20 feet up to, I estimate, 50 feet ) and in reasonably good health. Some of the larger of these have somewhat sparse foliage higher up.
It’s not entirely clear the OP is referring to the Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) or the Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), and most of the response seems to have focused on the latter, but there are some important differences between the two:
One is that the Giant Sequoia does not grow an extensive network of lateral roots for the first few years of life…
Giant Sequoias also are fairly intolerant of shade, and sprouting successfully will generally require the advantage of openings in the forest canopy:
(same source as above)
Coast Redwoods, on the other hand, will grow a lot of lateral roots immediately, and are very shade tolerant, so a mature stand of Redwoods will have successful recruitment of young Redwoods into the stand even without large disturbances:
Incidentally, to the OP’s question about growing a (Coast?) Redwood in a suburban development - there’s a Coast Redwood 20 yards from my porch, on its own (no other Redwoods around for at least 100 yards,) in a pretty medium-density suburban area with two apartment buildings within 50 yards, and another two houses including mine within 30 yards. ETA: Of course, it doesn’t hurt that my neighborhood is within the natural range of the Coast Redwood.
I got the seedling from the California Department of Forestry at the state fair, so it’s very possible not a giant sequoia but a coast redwood. I don’t remember anymore it was so long ago.
Not sure what the linked to Street View image refers to, but the 3 pointy things along the driveway and behind the house are Cypress trees of some kind. I’m not sure the tree to the left of the three pointy spires behind the house is a redwood - as I’m currently looking out my window at my neighbor’s overgrown and too high coastal redwood trees, the branches point mostly higher than horizontal, not down or out.
My former neighbor was a jerk - he planted a few “for screening” about 30 years ago. He’s gone, they’re still here, and perhaps 2x the height of his two story house. Fortunately for me, they’re downhill and to the northwest of my house, so they don’t inconvenience me at all. I’m at about the southernmost point where the coastal redwood can be found or planted. Sequoias are related but different, they’re the inland version.
That’s why I said “spruce” upthread. I see coast redwoods practically every weekend hiking, and those branches don’t look right. They are also spreading out close to the ground, which redwood trees don’t generally do. Of course, they may grow differently in someone’s yard than in the forest where they have to reach upwards to get light, and the OP DID say they planted a redwood or giant sequoia on that spot.
The pointy things are Italian Cypress or a close relative. Very common landscape tree. Also stupid looking, IMO, but to each their own.
Sorry, I thought is was clear I wasn’t talking about the landscaping cypress trees. I was thinking the tree in the center was incense cedar, red cedar or coastal redwood. It is certainly not a spruce.
I happened to browse through a nursery today. I saw young trees there labeled “Sequoia aptos”.
Anybody know what those are?
Okkay, I just googled that for me. Apparently it’s a cultivated variety of coast redwood, popular for landscaping. Here, for example, is a page about them.
BTW, have you ever taken a good close look at the redwood needles? The back side of each needle has a silver stripe down the center. Redwoods and Douglas Fir commonly share space in the same forests, and can be hard to tell apart if you don’t know the distinguishing features to look for. The silver stripe on redwood needles in one such feature. Douglas Fir needles don’t have that. (If you can find some cones to look that, those are totally different.)
Someone did this 30+ years ago near where I live. This is the result. I think it’s a coastal redwood, but I’m not entirely sure. It certainly looks impressive though.
