Very nice Christmas present.
Looking for lots of good advice…
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That will be fun to play with. It is idea for you to practice wiring if you are starting out. You can wire the lot to shape it.
First find the best trunk line.
Then find the best base, look for the nebari.
Then find the best image which is the combination of the two.
You will need to decided how tall you want the tree to be. Also what movement you want to put in the trunk. Currently there are two main branches: the red one and the blue one below. These are a similar thickness to the trunk meaning there isn’t much change in taper as you go up the tree. You could remove the red, and keep the green one to allow the blue to become the apex. This will allow you a lot to play with and will let you develop the tree into taller image.
On the other hand if you like smaller trees you can cut down to any of the lines shown in the picture below and wire the remaining branches to shape the tree.
Have a look at the following streams first especially if you are new to larch.
Have fun! Sorry if it’s an info overload or teaching you to suck eggs!
As you study the larch videos in the library you’ll find out that you should not do any work on it until the buds are just starting to swell this spring. As this looks like nursery stock you’ll also find out that Ryan recommends repotting nursery stock first and styling second. Therefore I would recommend that you repot the tree this spring, leave all the existing branches untouched so the tree can recover from the repot, which will likely involve a major root reduction, and then look to do the first styling and wiring in the spring of 2025.
I was going to post the repotting advice, but Roger beat me to it. If the tree grows strongly after the repot then you can do a post flush harden pruning to reduce the long, lanky branches by about 1/3 to 1/2 and encourage the lower branches to grow stronger. However, if the growth is not strong, leave it all.
Thankyou so much for all the good advice , I shall be slowly working all this out.
Everyone is different but in hindsight anytime I cut off a trunk or branch that was within say 1/4 of inch of the mother tree I wished I wasn’t in a rush my first year or two. Instead I would have been happier if took the time and practiced airlayering for the sake of getting good at it. Plus whatever I layered would have been just the icing on the cake. I would have tossed it in a grow bag and forgot about it for a year or two…just a perspective everyone’s practice is different. I have the space to stick stuff in the ground and wait , I know this isn’t the case for everyone but airlayering is the one technique that can “compress time” and get you working with higher quality material without remortgaging your house
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