i am of the mind.. of letting my conifers do their own thing .. others force them into their own preconcieved notion of what a christmas tree should look like ...

i guess the decision depends on you ...

but for sure ... more leaves/needles means more energy production means faster establishment and stronger growth ... do not cut anything off at this time ....

here is mine in winter .... i guess its about 15 years old
{{gwi:681928}}

here it is in summer ... right behind the purple flowers ... good luck .. ken
{{gwi:648946}}

Thanks Ken. I like the way it is growing now and would like it to look something like yours. Yours doesn't look too tall after 15 years. By leaving it alone when I plant it the branches will be laying on the ground. Should I do anything about that? At this point I can see the branches draping down the rocks of my pond, but as it grows I don't know what it will look like.
Thanks for the help,
Peggy

it sounds like all your questions are bonsai in nature ...

you can train to a perfect upright.. or you can train it to be weirder than heck ... a little copper wire and you can lead it all over the area ....

yours is a babe ... give it a year or two .. see where it goes.. and think about where you want it to go .. and work on it ...

i bought mine in a 10 gal pot from a nursery going out of biz.. so i have no idea how old it really is ... it is in pure sand .. which i presume might not be the most fertile ... though most my larches grow like weeds ...

just give it time .. ken

I think the shape of the "tree" depends on where the scion material was collected on the original tree. I have a 'Diane' that is about 10 years old and it is at least 15' tall with a dominate central leader and it is definitely very tree-like. My tree doesn't have very wide-reaching branches, which I like.

It all depends on what look you are looking for. I don't have a lot of room so I want a tall, slender tree rather than a short, fat tree. Ken has lots of room, so short and fat tree works in his space.

I'll try and post a picture of my tree from last fall when I get home.
Mike

This is a picture of my Larix kaempferi 'Diane' last fall, on 10-29-06, showing its fall color. I love this larch.

{{gwi:681929}}

Mike

One more note... This plant was a fresh graft, in 1997, that I purchased via mail order. I have found all of the L. kaempferi cultivars to be fairly fast growers.
Mike

since it loses its needles in the fall ..i suggest you learn a bit about bonsai training ... and teach it to grow away from the pond ... so the leaves/needles don't fall in the pond..

there is a bonsai forum ....

ken

From Welch's Checklist:

"A form with contorted branchlets. Becomes a small tree as a grafted plant"

Methinks Ken's is likely true to name, Mike's isn't; perhaps the rootstock took over. But Mike's is by far the nicer plant ;-)

Resin

Hi Resin,
My tree is contorted, but when the tree has needles, the contorted form isn't as noticeable as when the tree has bare branches. My tree is as contorted as Ken's plant that is shown without its needles (on 12-31-05.)
Mike

Ken, in your summer pic above, what's the handsome oak? Leaves look like Black oak.

which oak???? there are 3 in the picture ...

behind diana is a variegated robur ...

behind it to the left is a oak .. never ID'd it... i presume it was acorn planted.. so probably a hybrid.. maybe i will remember to get some leaf pix when it leafs out ... and get an ID here ....

and way back the huge one is a black oak hybrid as ID'd by our friends here ...

ken

******
behind it to the left is a oak .. never ID'd it... i presume it was acorn planted.. so probably a hybrid.. maybe i will remember to get some leaf pix when it leafs out ... and get an ID here ....
******

Yeah, that's the one.

Too lazy to post...

Here's one from Clinton, Iowa at Bickelhaupt Arboretum (obviously an older tree):

{{gwi:681931}}

Dax

It must be pretty big based on comparison to your black lab. ;)

On Tuesdays.

;) - That's a cat by the way. A rather following me around type. Then again, it's my natural attraction to nature that has always been apparent, or their's being to mine.

Hip-Hop-Hypocracy, Gangsta.

Dax