In a rush of possibly misplaced enthusiasm I bought a nice fat trunked (but straight) Dawn Redwood. Naturally, I am not intending to do anything drastic with it until the spring and will feed and invigorate the thing for the time being.

I would be interested in what people think of the potential and the approach to take. There are 3 fairly ugly trunk chops- with lots of sprouting growth from them. I am not sure just how much punishment this type of tree will take, but my first thought is to use the narrower of the chopped sections as a new apex- with one of the sprouts becoming leader, and then either try to nibble away or jin the other two stumps.

I suppose alternatives might be a drastic trunk chop below the messy bit, to start a new apex altogether- but given the trunk is already pretty thick, it is going to take a very long time to develop a leader which blends and tapers well.

Another alternative is to perhaps try to work with all three stumps- carve/ tidy them and make some sort of three pronged broom shape?

Any thoughts folks?

Very difficult to say without hands on, but I might be inclined to go with just one trunk. I would not cut low down as it might be too much for the tree to recover from. I don't think I would do it now, I would do it in winter when the tree is bare. I would fertilise and water heavily to get as much strength into the tree before doing drastic work. I would not prune any foliage until winter. Next year start styling

Thanks. Sounds like my thinking is not too far off.