Larch Bonsai

Hi all,

I've had this Larch for a few months. haven't done much apart from light pruning. Before going any further I thought I'd take some expert comments about the tree itself and some advice on styling.

Any comments / virts would be much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Faisal

Hello Faisal. This Larch could be very nice indeed. I strongly recomend you do nothing to it until the buds go a shiny bronze colour in early spring. Ilike the trunk but the branches seem to be going every which way. personally i like to see Larch branches falling from horizontal directly from the trunk and rising slightly at the ends.Like you would draw a christmas tree. what happened to close up of carving on crab apple?

Hi Will,

Thank you for your advice. I will leave it untouched until spring and then follow your instructions when wiring. Reg. crab apple, I have taken some pictures just haven't had a chance to download and post them. Will do ASAP. Have a few pictures to post for comments and advices.

Hope you have a wonderful week.

Regds,

Faisal

Found it best to wire and prune larix in the winter, getting the wire on is easier with no needles!

Mr Treevolution wrote:Found it best to wire and prune larix in the winter, getting the wire on is easier with no needles!

In my experience with them winter is a bad time. They become brittle and easily snap. Of course my experience is with Larix Larecina, Eastern Larch and my opinion may be colored by this one species.

Never snapped a larix branch! Find them to be very flexible and need to be rewired a couple of times to get true setting to desired position. Hey but thats just me and the past 15 or so winters of wiring them!

Mr Treevolution wrote:Never snapped a larix branch! Find them to be very flexible and need to be rewired a couple of times to get true setting to desired position. Hey but thats just me and the past 15 or so winters of wiring them!

Here again what species of Larch are you talking about? Dicidua, Kempherii, other? My experience is only with Laricina. After going back to the beginning of this string and doind a little cursory looking, which I should have done earlier, it is most likely the tree involved here is Dicidua, European Larch.

Yes, it is a European larch. and if you have a closer look, you will see some of the branches have already been wired and i found them to be quite flexible.

Mainly decidua, which is what most will collect in the uk. Wiring any tree at this time of year is likely to leed to the wire biting in as the branches bulk up and swell towards autumn, larix are no exception. In fact they are real bulkers! The wood will not set till the bulking has finished and the sap has stopped flowing for the dormant season ahead. I only wire where really needed, rather clip and grow for branch development and use guy wires where possible. Wire early winter and protect from frost.

Thanks Mr T. Will keep that in mind.

cheers

No worries fella, glad to be of some use to someone!

f.waheedy wrote:Yes, it is a European larch. and if you have a closer look, you will see some of the branches have already been wired and i found them to be quite flexible.

Yes I see that, but this tree is not in winter defoliation. During the summer Larch are very flexible, at least the Eastern Larch is.

Vance, you're quite right in assuming we work on different larches over here. As Mr Treevolution says it's mostly L. decidua and L.kaempferi tho' some of are lucky enough to get the Dunkeld Larch. I havven't got one of the latter so can't comment on it.

I do have a few of the other two and do the bulk of my work on them (including my Big Lad) round about late February early March when the buds are beginning to form. That was I can see which ones are in branch junctions or facing downwards (instant removal) and/or which ones are going in the wrong direction for what I want. I do wiring at this point while the branches are still flexible but like others I prefer to use guy wires. I check wiring regularly because of the bulking up Mr T. talks about. It is not uncommon for me to take wire off and/or rewire during a season.

re flexibility of branches: I've never found much difficulty in this as my larches live in a wet climate and maybe for that reason seem a bit more flexible. On older trees and trees that have been neglected, some branches can become brittle. I inherited some from the east coast of Scotland which had been lying around a farmer's yard in pots. The combination of the drier environment and having been potted and neglected had made them quite substantially more brittle. There's definitely a care and maintenance lesson therein I believe.

Faisal - can you give me some indication of the dimensions of your tree please. I'm seeing it as about 30cm or so tall - is that even close?

Fiona, this one is about 75 cms tall. Like i said, i will make sure all my pictures have some kind of size indicator.
Thanks