Not quite sure what you're after D'Arcy but my own experience may help.

In the UK a pruned off larch branch does not respond with a burst of shoots from around the trunk wound like an acer or elm would if that's what you mean.

It seems more usual for buds elsewhere to activate.

I'm working with 3 or 4 now and once a branch it off it seems to be gone for good in my experience.

In other words I don't feel you can remove all the branches from a larch back to the trunk and re-grow them.

What you do get though are a new shoots in the branch crotch. If you get these and let them develop, you can take the main branch back and replace it with the new shoot.

I have pruned right back to the first set of buds and have produced new growth from the trunk but taking it right back may be kill off/remove the hormones or whatever that make it bud.

Like you have to leave some needles on a pine or the branch dies - same sort of idea.

Quite happy to be corrected on this.

Tim, from my experience and reading you are right. Larch will just "give up" on a removed branch and bud elsewhere.
D Two books might be helpful, Art of Bonsai Design by Colin Lewis and Natural Bonsai by Dave Joyce. Both books go into great depth about pruning and styling larch. Like many trees they have their odd habits but are a very rewarding plant to work with and very responsive to bonsai techniques.

you must prune the tops hard and you will get buds to break, but you can not do branch removal with larchs. You will not know where you will get buds to break but you will take what you get. All this I have been doing with younger stock no older then say 6 years so I do not know how old wood responds to this hard top pruning. The top pruning must be done with every new flush of growth because larch will push a few times a year and i mean push hard. Thats what i've been doing and i get really nice branching.

Good Luck, NorthernBonsai

Hi all

Thanks for getting back to me on this. It seems the consensus is what I was afraid of :-(. I love larch but I have one that for some reason only budded on the outer third of the branches this year and last year. The inner buds just didn't open. Ah well, I'll cut back to the innermost live shoot and see what happens.

Thanks again

D.

I am assuming that the Larch you have is Eastern Larch, Larix Larecina. This tree is common to the North East USA and Canada and it makes wonderful bonsai. I have a collected Larch that I have had since 1982. It is an Eastern Larch, the same tree I think we are talking about. First of all you cannot cut all the branches off a Larch you will kill it. Secondly you cannot cut back any branch back to a point where there is no active growth, you will kill the branch. Thirdly, Larch do not back bud very well and in my experience not at all. So the idea of getting growth to start where there is now none cannot be done without grafting.

Larch are what is called apecly(sp?) dominant. This means that the top of the tree grows more vigorously than the lower portions of the tree. It is necessary that you continueously cut back the top or you will start to lose lower portions of the tree. Always cut to active growth, in fact it is often prefered that you cut one bud above where you really want to cut because of possible die back.

Vance Wood.

Lisen to Vance he is very good at what he does.I think the buds I get to break are already in place just lieing dormant.This is on very young wood though, not even any mature bark yet.Vance has it right you have to prune the tops and often.

Good Luck, NorthernBonsai

Vance's info is right on track. When working with younger stock you can get some results by hard pruning of the leader, back into the old wood, this helps with the apecial dominance and will help the lower branches catch up.
Vernon

Hi all

Thanks for the advice - I've saved this page to my hard drive so I don't forget in two weeks and have to ask again :-).

The tree in question is pretty young,I collected it 6 years ago, probably no more than 4-5 years old at the time. I've cut it back hard to the last two shoots on each branch and I'm crossing my fingers. I'll let you know how it goes.

D.