Climate is why the European larch, Larix decidua, is so rare here. It prefers cooler weather in both winter and summer, and more humidity. Foliage can roast if too exposed through summer. Small trees that are partly sheltered or partly shaded by larger trees have the best color and foliar density. Larch are innately reliant on somewhat regular watering, so are not drought tolerant. The mildly cool weather of autumn is enough to brown the formerly bluish foliage, which falls shortly afterward.
In the wild, larch trees can get as tall as other big coniferous trees. However, the many different garden varieties stay much smaller. Some are very pendulous. A few have contorted stems. Of the few that can sometimes be seen locally, most are compact dwarfs that grow more like low and dense shrubbery than trees. Some get only two or three feet tall and broad, and grow very slowly. These can stay in containers or planters for many years.
I love these trees. My father brought one down to Illinois from Wisconsin and under his care it got quite large until a tornado ripped the top out and it died. A forest full of them is really something, in the same way a forest of birch is wondrous.
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People who know them really like them. It is funny that way. It is hard to imagine what is so great about quaking aspen, but people from Colorado adore them. I have never seen a mature larch, and would not recognize one if I did.
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