Larch
Larix decidua
A tree for open ground and full sun; what threatens it is disease rather than any lapse in care.
- Type
- Tree · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Sunlight
- Needs full sun, and will not make anything of less.
- Watering
- Water through the first 2-3 seasons, then leave it to itself.
- Feeding
- Feed only through the first 3-4 years.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- April
- Pruning
- Almost none — shape it in winter while it is young, then stop.
- Overwintering
- Fully hardy; it needs nothing at all over winter.
- Mar–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–Apr Spring Growth
- Apr–Nov Flowering
- Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 19 ft 8 in
- In-row spacing
- 19 ft 8 in
- Between rows
- 24 ft 7 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody, shallow and far-reaching
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 4 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 39–59 ft across, about 2–3× the width of the plant
Almost all of a tree’s roots are in the top two feet of soil, where the air is, and they run out well past the branch tips. The deep taproot most people picture belongs to the seedling; the tree grows out of it and spends the rest of its life spreading sideways instead.
The habit is Larch’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Adelgids & woolly aphids
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Adelgids & woolly aphids
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
Birch, Rowan, Heather, Blueberries
Trees, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com