Ficus Work

[Apex37]

So these we’re my very first bonsai that I’ve been working on when I first started bonsai last year. Lots of work to go and made a few mistakes, but they’re better than nothing. I’ll try and stay on top of getting before and after photos, as I’ve come to realize I’m really bad at taking photos of before working on these trees.

I’m mostly creating this thread to track their progress and get advice on styling.

First one was a gift given to me by my late mother-in-law, which was trunk chopped and has been styled in a semi-cascade. I just did some pruning last night. A few things I need to work on with this tree:

1. It sits entirely too high in the pot and I’m hoping to be able to fix that come next repot.
2. It’s really hard to tell any movement in the cascading branch and even though it can be seen when looking from the top, it’s hardly distinguishable when looking from either side. At this point I’m not sure what could be done about this, but it’s something I’ll have to address
3. I’ve been trying to decide whether to keep either the blue or red marked branch as they have very similar movement and close placement. I’ve been leaning towards blue since it’s very close to the apex.

On to ficus #2, which was my second ‘bonsai tree’ purchase. A clearance rack Lowes ficus. Kinda reminds me of a sweet potato. I don’t have really a lot of plans with this guy. He’s nothing special and probably never will be, but he’s taught me a lot about pruning and wiring and the one thing I love about ficus, which is how vigorous they grow. He’s due for a pruning here coming up. I’ve toyed with the idea of removing the front large root, but I think it also kinda adds character. I also need to work on getting branching a little lower as well. Hopefully all in due time.

 

[Versal]

2. It’s really hard to tell any movement in the cascading branch and even though it can be seen when looking from the top, it’s hardly distinguishable when looking from either side. At this point I’m not sure what could be done about this, but it’s something I’ll have to address

I think adding some vertical movement to the branch would help emphasize the flow of the cascading branch

3. I’ve been trying to decide whether to keep either the blue or red marked branch as they have very similar movement and close placement. I’ve been leaning towards blue since it’s very close to the apex.

I can't fully tell from the pictures but I was thinking red would be better to keep because the blue branch seems very close to the larger cascading branch which could potentially cause some inverse taper in the future?

 

[Shibui]

1. It sits entirely too high in the pot and I’m hoping to be able to fix that come next repot.

Most ficus species are really resilient so you can remove a lot of roots without any harm to the tree. Definitely possible to lower this next repot.

2. It’s really hard to tell any movement in the cascading branch and even though it can be seen when looking from the top, it’s hardly distinguishable when looking from either side. At this point I’m not sure what could be done about this, but it’s something I’ll have to address

Many beginners seem to concentrate on horizontal movement in branches but don't put the same effort into vertical bends. That branch looks quite flexible and it already has wire on. You just need to get some better bends into it. Getting good 3D bends into short branches can be frustrating. As you add a vertical bend the horizontal ones seem to disappear but with some practice you'll get it.

3. I’ve been trying to decide whether to keep either the blue or red marked branch as they have very similar movement and close placement. I’ve been leaning towards blue since it’s very close to the apex.

In the early days I also found myself agonizing over decisions like this. Eventually I came to realize that if you can't decide which is better that means both are good so it doesn't matter which stays and which goes. If necessary toss a coin to decide because procrastination means not developing the tree as it should. Once the decision is made it must have been the correct decision so never look back. Move forward and develop a better tree with what you have.

 

[Apex37]

Thank you both for y’all’s suggestions. I hadn’t thought much on adding vertical movement along with the horizontal movement. Always learning something new! I’ll try and work on creating that and see where it goes.

 

[Apex37]

After adjustments were made.