First "Unidentified bonsai" (Willow Leaf Ficus?) from greenhouse!

[damien]

Got my first bonsai! Well, bonsai in training. Went everywhere, nobody had any plain old ficus except the big tall office building stuff.

But they did have bonsai stock - lots of fukian teas, junipers with horrible wire marks in the bark, etc, and this unidentified plant that the people all told me was a rhododendron.
I figured it was a willow leaf ficus, and it definitely bleeds like a ficus.

Anyway, I took my time reading up on bonsai, slowly deciding what to do with the plant over the last month. It was a huge bush when I got it, now I'm trying to put some shape into it!

Any advice?
It has a lot of long, thin branches with leaves on just the end.
I've done considerable pruning to open the shape up, and have about 50 billion cuttings in propagation containers now.

There's a big thick tall branch that I don't know if you can see in the photos, that I'm air layering (or trying to) just because I was going to remove it anyway - might as well see if I can air layer it first!

Now I don't really know what to do except let it be until it gets all bushy and overgrown again. Don't know what to do about the long branches with nothing on them but on the ends.

 

[damien]

Also, here's what it looked like when I bought it! Hopefully I haven't made it worse. lol
They didn't even repot it - they literally took it out of a small planter and stuck it in a bonsai pot, and the original planter was taller than the bonsai pot so this perfect cylinder of dirt and coiled roots stuck up from the container. They covered it with some moss and a rock. lol

 

[Poink88]

Welcome!

One advise, remove all the wire you placed on your tree, they are not doing anything but potentially hurt the tree later. Read how to wire properly before you try again.

 

[Redwood Ryan]

Welcome,



As Dario said, I too would suggest you take the wire off, it doesn't look like it's doing much good. That is indeed a Willow Leaf Ficus and if you can give it tons of light it will love you forever.

 

[Ang3lfir3]

just to be clear as to why you have been told that the wire on the tree is not doing you any favors....

1) there is way too much of it..
2) its coiled like a spring so has no holding power, much the opposite actually
3) it appears that it might be a little too thick for what you are trying to accomplish ...

i don't usually point people to tutorials, mostly because I think there is no better way to learn than to do.... but with a little arming of knowledge i think you will find great success....
read this: http://bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basics_Wiring.htm

 

[damien]

Thanks for the input everyone!
I'll take the wire off and try to learn how to wire bonsai correctly!