Sapling Division: parve_arbores Larix Laricina forest (American Larch)

[parvae_arbores]

I got these larches from a local bonsai farm last year and always planned a forest. I got the chance to repot them today so I hope you like them!

Also, according to contest rules I measured and the width of the widest tree is 1.5" at the base.

Finally tomorrow I plan to put a guy wire on the largest tree to stand it up straighter in the pot since I wasn't happy with the angle when I was done.

 

[parvae_arbores]

Ok couldn't help myself and had to get the trunks the way I was envisioning them in my head. I think you will agree, this profile is much better.

 

[Yamabudoudanshi]

Yay! More larch forests!

It will be cool to compare with mine. You are using less, and more mature trees, where I am using more, but much younger material.

I'm excited to see these budded out.

 

[parvae_arbores]

Yay! More larch forests!

It will be cool to compare with mine. You are using less, and more mature trees, where I am using more, but much younger material.

I'm excited to see these budded out.

I am still unhappy with the right most tree it doesnt look natural like it was touched with the same wind. w.d.y.t?

 

[Yamabudoudanshi]

I am still unhappy with the right most tree it doesnt look natural like it was touched with the same wind. w.d.y.t?

I think for such a small number of trees, the planting has a pretty strong sense of depth. I see what you mean by the trunks not really matching, but once you build more substantial branching on the trees, I think you'll have the opportunity to make them look like they really fit together.
Just my gut feeling though.

 

[parvae_arbores]

I think for such a small number of trees, the planting has a pretty strong sense of depth. I see what you mean by the trunks not really matching, but once you build more substantial branching on the trees, I think you'll have the opportunity to make them look like they really fit together.
Just my gut feeling though.

Thanks for saying that, I obsessed about the position of the trunks and I cut them back really hard since most of the branches were too large to create the right depth I was looking for.

 

[parvae_arbores]

Here is the summer growth flush for those of you that are following. I am interested in what people think about cutting it back a bit now. I am concerned about how the right most two trees are growing together.

 

[Kanorin]

Nice start! I agree that the two right-most trees could probably be altered slightly so they don't overlap at both the soil line and up at the apex. One option is to prune the smaller tree (although probably still leave some foliage) so that it is quite a bit smaller than it's neighbor. It might look a little weird for a the remainder of the year, but I think it will look better in future years. Then the canopies would definitely be less overlapping.

I'm not sure about timing of pruning though - I know nothing about Larch.

 

[parvae_arbores]

Nice start! I agree that the two right-most trees could probably be altered slightly so they don't overlap at both the soil line and up at the apex. One option is to prune the smaller tree (although probably still leave some foliage) so that it is quite a bit smaller than it's neighbor. It might look a little weird for a the remainder of the year, but I think it will look better in future years. Then the canopies would definitely be less overlapping.

I'm not sure about timing of pruning though - I know nothing about Larch.

The picture above is a bad angle (slightly to the right and from above) which makes it looks like the front and back tree are more overlapping than they actually are. I did some light pruning on some branches I know I definitely will not want, this following spring I am going to wire heavily to make sure I set the branch structure I want and see what happens.

 

[parvae_arbores]

Update coming soon. TLDR lost 4 trees in this group due to vicious mite attacks and heat. I am going back to the "bonsai farm" to dig some more larch to repopulate the forrest. Is this against the rules?