Making a boring larch an interesting larch (my first larch)

Cypress

Shohin
Messages
401
Reaction score
14
Hey all. So, got a Tamarack here, American larch (Larix laricina). I bought it from a nursery this past summer, not particularly knowing what I was going to do with it. I was dying to work on a tamarack, and this one was fat and a decent deal. Then I kind of stared at it for a number of months. It was originally probably around 8 feet tall, quite straight, lacking much taper. It came to me that probably one of the only ways to make this an interesting tree was to do some serious carving.

The idea is to create a large 'jin spire' of sorts, a tree in nature that experienced some severe hardship and most of the trunk died back but a new branch grew to replace the dead trunk. I am going to wire upwards one of the remaining branches to grow a new trunk growing more or less parallel to the deadwood, with branches intermingling with the 'spire'.

I did all the carving over a couple days with basically a trunk splitter, jin pliers, and a utility knife. Don't own much in the way of wood carving tools. But it definitely needs further work. Would like to get my hands on a Graham Potter style power carving tool to put in the detail that the deadwood needs. I've never treated deadwood before and I need to pick up supplies for preserving the wood. So, lime sulphur, possibly ink of some sort for color, and I would like to apply a wood hardener as well. It's pretty important that I preserve the wood as best I can, given how integral it is to the design, so if anyone could point me in the right direction product wise that would be really helpful.

Nebari, it has some pretty gnarly surface roots. i did some pretty intense root work on this tree in the fall, without ever taking it out of the pot. The nebari were buried well under the soil and the roots looked like they were very very angry at the pot. One root was growing back to the trunk from the edge of the pot and growing in circles around the base of the trunk, basically beginning to girdle it. So I think this tree will be very very happy to be repotted when the time comes.

Pictures could be better, but they'll do for now. Feedback welcome!
photo.jpg photo_2.jpg photo_1.jpgphoto_3.jpg
 
Last edited:

Gene Deci

Shohin
Messages
427
Reaction score
336
Location
Northern Michigan
I like your work on the top of the tree very much. The transition from living to dead strikes me as too abrupt though. Maybe a strip of shari going down a little more on one side might help.
 

Cypress

Shohin
Messages
401
Reaction score
14
I like your work on the top of the tree very much. The transition from living to dead strikes me as too abrupt though. Maybe a strip of shari going down a little more on one side might help.

Thanks! And yea totally, I completely agree that it's too abrupt. I'm going to wait probably another season before I carve lower though. I want just make sure I establish which branches are staying and that they are vigorous, then I will carve down around the branches a bit to make it a smoother transition. Even the deadwood just above the bark hasn't really been worked, I'd like to wait until I have a power tool to really dig into that as I'm a bit weary of taking too much off and throwing off the taper. But we'll see.

It's too bad I didn't really take a before picture I don't think. but if you can Imagine the caliper of the trunk where the bark ends, it was not much thinner than that at the top of the deadwood, so i took alot of wood off up there to give the look of taper.
 

Cypress

Shohin
Messages
401
Reaction score
14
It's really 3 dimensional too, I've carved the deadwood into a sort of spiral to some degree.
 

edprocoat

Masterpiece
Messages
3,423
Reaction score
378
Location
Ohio/Florida
USDA Zone
6
Cypres I like the deadwood too it looks rough like it was created by nature. I think it may be too big though. In relationship to the tree it overpowers the tree making it look young. I would think that unless you are going for a really tall tree you will need to reduce the deadwood by at least half.

ed
 

Cypress

Shohin
Messages
401
Reaction score
14
Cypres I like the deadwood too it looks rough like it was created by nature. I think it may be too big though. In relationship to the tree it overpowers the tree making it look young. I would think that unless you are going for a really tall tree you will need to reduce the deadwood by at least half.

ed

Thanks Ed, I agree it looks quite out of proportion right now and it's very possible I will reduce it in the future. But my long term plan is to take one of the branches wire it vertical and grow a living trunk that grows up alongside the dead wood. Would take some time. So I think I'll play it by ear right now, see how that comes along and re-evaluate the height of the dead wood in a couple years probably.
 

Nomad

Sapling
Messages
44
Reaction score
5
Location
Upstate New York
USDA Zone
5a
Lots of great potential. It would look great with long branches sloping down as if weighted from years of snow falling on them. This would especially enhance the tall deadwood as well.
 
Top Bottom