Western larches

[Vance Wood]

Here is the thin one today.
I repotted last year, when collected it went into a tall nursery container as the roots collected with it were vertically long. When I cleaned away the soil I found a long tapering taproot with many roots down low but only one root high where the usable base of the tree was. I cut there, it felt quite risky but had to be done at some point. Luckily the tree didn’t mind, it will be easy to put into or onto something of a suitable size and shape next time around.

So yesterday evening I worked on it a little bit. This is the first time I’ve touched the foliage or branches in any way at all actually. Two spiral wires, two guy wires and some trimming and snipping. I never try to work out all the fine details with a first styling, hard to even call it styling. My first moves on a tree are usually just coarse moves to kind of open the view into the predicted final style, get main branches close, rough outline maybe.. The whole point is just to make the final hoped for image easier to see. Then I sit on it, take time to make decisions that aren’t obvious, look for more things that can be pruned away, things that should be grown out and developed maybe..just look for ways to make it better before going all in.
Depending on many things that could be next month or 10 years later.

Anyways, that’s just me, often enough the result looks terrible like a kindergartener just tried to style a tree but it’s only a first step. This one was pretty satisfying, a couple very simple easy moves and it came out looking surprisingly sharp I thought. So, I think it will stay much the same but get better. I could see jinning that first branch someday down the road but not before trying to use it well first. View attachment 193156View attachment 193157

Very nice work.

 

[wireme]

Very nice work.

Thanks Vance, I appreciate the comment.

The other larch in this thread had a strange year last year. It flushed out like normal and then never extended at all. By mid to late summer needles started browning and falling off. Around that time I picked it up and was surprised at how light it felt. Seems I had been passing over it too quickly while watering and it was frequently dry in the core. I started watering more thoroughly and by fall it suddenly tried to push another flush of growth, late in the season with no chance of hardening off for winter. Luckily by then it was late enough in the season for freezing nights to put a stop to that, only a few brushes had time to emerge. This spring, as normal, so far so good.

 

[Vance Wood]

Larch like a good deal of water.

 

[wireme]

Larch like a good deal of water.

Western larch are a bit of an unknown in that regard I think. At least their natural habitat is entirely different than tamarack, they prefer much drier sites and don’t tolerate overly wet areas like tamarack do. As far as pot culture hard to say, not much experience in the bonsai world to draw from. They are in a medium well draining enough that I don’t think I can overwater even if I tried though so I’ll be trying to keep the moisture levels up more.

 

[NHATIVE]

Any update on these? Beautiful trees, and a great thread.

 

[wireme]

Man. I’m haven’t taken a single decent photo of any tree for more than a couple years now.
Thought this larch was looking nice today though so here it is.

 

[Goon Salo]

View attachment 490620
Man. I’m haven’t taken a single decent photo of any tree for more than a couple years now.
Thought this larch was looking nice today though so here it is

View attachment 490620
Man. I’m haven’t taken a single decent photo of any tree for more than a couple years now.
Thought this larch was looking nice today though so here it is.

Beautiful tree. I collected some western larches earlier this spring but most of them didnt make it. Any insight on when to best collect and maybe after care? I misted them a few times a day and had them on a equal parts lava pumice perlite and vermiculite mix. They really dont seem to like heat but also seem to need plenty of sun.