How about some ficus benjamina love? (Let's see yours)

[aml1014]

Here's one a buddy of mine gave me this june, gone through quite a bit, and is the mother of 4 new ficus lol.
Here it is June 18th
And this morning after wiring.
Front
Back
Nothing special but it's looking MUCH better now.

Aaron

 

[Giga]

Here was mine before I sold it, In a few years it would have been great I simply didn't have room inside for it - I miss it

 

[AlainK]

I heard that Ficus benjamina doesn't backbud as well as other species, that's probably why they're not so often seen as bonsai.

But other esily available house plants are fun to play with. I bought this Ficus "Natacha" (different spellings according where it is sold) more than 15 years ago I think. It was actually a handful of cuttings grown in the same pot.

As a house-plant, it didn't go that well:

2007:

Leggy branches, a soil that hadn't been changed for years, and all the mistakes you can do to a house plant.

But I thought that the base could maybe be interesting. So I started to work on it. It was quite promissing, but I didn't take care of it in the past two years.

2012:

2016:

Actually, I really don't know how to shape it!

I think I will repot it in early spring (April) and take a lot of cuttings from the branches, reducing the taller ones to a quarter of their lenght in hope of making it develop more horizontally.

 

[aml1014]

I heard that Ficus benjamina doesn't backbud as well as other species, that's probably why they're not so often seen as bonsai.

But other esily available house plants are fun to play with. I bought this Ficus "Natacha" (different spellings according where it is sold) more than 15 years ago I think. It was actually a handful of cuttings grown in the same pot.

As a house-plant, it didn't go that well:

2007:

Leggy branches, a soil that hadn't been changed for years, and all the mistakes you can do to a house plant.

But I thought that the base could maybe be interesting. So I started to work on it. It was quite promissing, but I didn't take care of it in the past two years.

2012:

2016:

Actually, I really don't know how to shape it!

I think I will repot it in early spring (April) and take a lot of cuttings from the branches, reducing the taller ones to a quarter of their lenght in hope of making it develop more horizontally.

Wonderful tree! I hope to see the work you do to it in the future.

Aaron

 

[Stickroot]

I heard that Ficus benjamina doesn't backbud as well as other species, that's probably why they're not so often seen as bonsai.

But other esily available house plants are fun to play with. I bought this Ficus "Natacha" (different spellings according where it is sold) more than 15 years ago I think. It was actually a handful of cuttings grown in the same pot.

As a house-plant, it didn't go that well:

2007:

Leggy branches, a soil that hadn't been changed for years, and all the mistakes you can do to a house plant.

But I thought that the base could maybe be interesting. So I started to work on it. It was quite promissing, but I didn't take care of it in the past two years.

2012:

2016:



Actually, I really don't know how to shape it!

I think I will repot it in early spring (April) and take a lot of cuttings from the branches, reducing the taller ones to a quarter of their lenght in hope of making it develop more horizontally.

I have a similar story but mine got to big. So now I have started reducing it to see where it goes.
Pardon my shed
It reached 8' this season

 

[leatherback]

but mine got to big

Bleep yeah. That is some big bonsai. One would amost call it a tree!

 

[Mike MoMo]

Oh well I reckon I should show my Benjaminas . I love this fickle trees, maybe because they are difficult to care for and tend to look great once or twice a year. I have five of them and keep telling myself not to get another. (I do prefer Green Island Ficus over Benjis even thou I have more Benjis).

 

[music~maker]

Benjamina too little. I've had this thing for about 17 years had i known what I know now I'd have been growing this thing out in a bigger pot for a while but since I diddnt it still looks the same as it did ten years ago. maybe the inverse taper has gotten a lil bulkier. I've made several cutting off this over the years but all seem to be quite slow growing. Sorry for the shit in the background View attachment 122097

Was wondering if we'd see a too little benjamina here. Probably my favorite ficus of those I've worked with. If you want that trunk to bulk up, put it in a larger pot and let it grow unrestricted for a few seasons. You'll definitely see a difference after a while. Trunk size stays the same forever on these otherwise.

You ideally should put it outside for the entire growing season to maximize growth. I have one that was in a similar state for years, and it was only when I up-potted and let it grow out that it grew into a much nicer tree and the trunk started thickening.

 

[aml1014]

Thinned and put some wire on my smaller clump.
Front.
Our left
Back
And our right
I've been trying to grow out the lowest limbs, still got a ways to go!

Aaron

 

[thomas22]

Here is mine. It needs a lot of work. It just got a repot for the first time in many years. I hope to get some back budding going on and reduce the height. I also need to change the top 1/2'' of soil to something darker besides pumice because it hides the nebari.

 

[Shima]

Here's one a bit further along.

 

[aml1014]

Here's one a bit further along. View attachment 125355 View attachment 125356

That tree is my inspiration for the giant ficus I got a little over a month ago, should only take me 10 years or so
Your soooooo lucky to live near it!

Aaron

 

[aml1014]

Here's a couple of my teachers too little that I worked on to get back into shape. They need some backbudding to cope for the leggieness.
Another
Should look good again by next summer.

My teacher also adored a little bougainvillea and shohin tiger bark ficus. Well I love her benjis so we traded a couple trees. Here's my 2 new benjamina.
First tree before and after cutting taken I'm 1998.
Here's the second tree, a cutting from 1987.
And after
These Both need a lot of back budding as well but they both look way better IMO. I must add, these both have been in a bonsai pot since they were rooted.

Aaron

 

[aml1014]

Here's another one that is an air layer from the tree at the top of this page. I just potted it into a concrete pot I made the other day.
Once it is rooted into the pot I'll put a bit more bend in the trunk to make it a nice literti.

Aaron

 

[aml1014]

Repotted my 'too little' today. Starting to get a shape to it to. I'm also pretty happy with the taper it's developed in my care.
The literati got a pruning
Aaron

 

[Nwaite]

Rapped the roots around a fist sized rock at the end of thispast summer... hoping to start cutting away the side this spring . . if it's not to soon.

 

[aml1014]

My buddy gave me 2 more 'too little' benjaminas so I stuck them both in pots I made. One had a huge cut taken out of the trunks know so I figured I'd bend it!lol I'll allow the 2nd to root in , then I'll airlayer it and cut back to the low branch. Mame anyone?
Aaron

 

[Jarath]

My 3 favorites. Working on trunks so far. Largest Is 2 inches. These guy's grow non-stop here in FLA.

 

[BrianBay9]

Some nice trees in this thread, but most are tall, leggy, thin. Since everyone agrees that they don't back bud well, I wonder if we should be treating them differently in development. Instead of letting them grow unchecked until we get the trunk girth we desire, perhaps we should be focused on keeping low limbs? Sacrifice top growth and speed of thickening to keep better limb choices during development?

 

[aml1014]

Some nice trees in this thread, but most are tall, leggy, thin. Since everyone agrees that they don't back bud well, I wonder if we should be treating them differently in development. Instead of letting them grow unchecked until we get the trunk girth we desire, perhaps we should be focused on keeping low limbs? Sacrifice top growth and speed of thickening to keep better limb choices during development?

Your absolutely correct about all of those things. These can and will back budd, but not reliably, and NEVER where you want a branch.
For this monster
I plan to airlayer piece by piece off until I'm left with the only buds it'll give me. I also have a dozen or so cuttings of the too little ficus above, so I may graft the small leaf variety on to this guy.

Aaron