Because 'Gold Rush' is not considered a registered cultivar name - the name correctly is 'Ogon' and 'Gold Rush' is just the Americanized version of the original Japanese name. Yes, it is the same tree and the nursery (for once!) is using a correct registered identifier.

btw, the greening of the foliage is a result of drought stress - sufficient watering will maintain the bright gold color, even through summer.

Good. my new tree came by UPS ground, from greenwoodnursery.com. Delivery only took two days, but the heat most likely could have stressed the tree. It was shipped in a seven foot long box and was potted in a full sized 3 gallon pot. The soil was still moist. So I guess the heat must have stressed the leaves. They not only were more dark green, they also appeard to be less delicate than the leaves which my first tree displayed all last year.

If what you say is true the difference in the new tree's bark must more so be due to the recently shipped tree being being older than the first one that nursery sent me, in spring '06.

Last night when i did a search on their website by keying in the Redwood 'Ogon' identifier name that they listed on the tag, the site pulled up their 'Gold Rush' Ad and photo from which earler I had placed my orders. So, it seems like they must have sent the same tree I ordered. The redish colored bark on the new tree does make the new tree seem better than the younger first tree they sent me with more of a grayish bark color.

After this morning's summer shower, the new tree's leaves do seem to look brighter compared to how they appeared when i first potted it. Along with the warm rain, it also must like the potting soil I used and the location where place the tree. It now gets morning sun and afternoon shade exposure, but it also is far enough from my house so that it does not overheat in the morning by reflective heatup, so what is commonly seen with stone walls like my house has.

At first I started to plant it into a 5 gallon pot, but when I removed the rootball from it's 3 gallon pot, the roots seemed so well developed that they could handle a 10 gallon size pot, insead. Now the bottom root which were so crowded in the 3 gallon size pot, have room to spread out. Usually going larger than one pot size up concerns me about possible root rot problems. At least when I gently apread the roots out in the larger pot, they seemed to extend both down and outward enough to warrent my choice to go with the bigger pot.