Mother/Daughter style Cork Bark Portulacaria Afra

[cbrshadow23]

I visited Frank Yee's garden about 2 years ago and bought a few of his Cork Bark Portulacaria Afra trees, one of which was the pictured tree below. I struggled with how to style it for quite a while but after seeing Adam Lavigne's (AdamAskWhy) mother/daughter ficus I was inspired to do something similar with this tree.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on how it looks, how it can be improved, etc. I need it to fill in more and get a nicer canopy but you can see where I'm going. Forgive all of the wires - they'll come off this summer. The mother side of the tree originally angled backwards pretty sharply and away from the daughter but I used guy wires to give it better movement.

Here's the tree when I got it from Frank Yee's garden.


Initially I repotted it to get the very old rock-hard soil off the roots. This photo is after letting it grow for a while




After not being able to decide on a style, I repotted the tree into an air pot and let it grow wild, mostly. Not pretty, but the trunk got significantly thicker during this time.


Here's the trunk. Lots of thick old corking.



This is when I saw Adam Lavigne's photo of his Ficus. Note the photo is mirrored 180 degrees so that the 'daughter' is on the left like mine.. Also the photo is cartoonized, but you get the point.



Finally here's my tree now after working it quite a bit.





Any feedback would be great. What should I work on? I have a few things in mind that the tree needs, but I'd like your thoughts.

 

[cbrshadow23]

Bump! Almost 100 views but no feedback or opinions
What can I do to improve the styling? Is the scale of the canopy vs trunk roughly correct? Are there any big flaws that I should address? Is this tree getting close to being ready for a bonsai pot? I usually wait to transfer to a bonsai pot until it's a near finished tree since it grows so much faster in a large air pot vs a shallow bonsai pot.

 

[Colorado]

Looks great - one of the nicer looking p. Afra that I’ve seen in awhile. Great work!

If you want feedback, I’ll offer a few constructive suggestions:

The bottom of the pads look like they could be cleaned up slightly to help with pad definition.

I do think the trunk is big enough to visually hold the canopy. Great trunk and awesome texture with the corking.

I’d move it to a bonsai pot if it was me. I think it’s ready! You can only achieve so much refinement in that huge pot. Looks ready for refinement techniques in my opinion.

Sweet tree!

 

[cbrshadow23]

Looks great - one of the nicer looking p. Afra that I’ve seen in awhile. Great work!

If you want feedback, I’ll offer a few constructive suggestions:

The bottom of the pads look like they could be cleaned up slightly to help with pad definition.

I do think the trunk is big enough to visually hold the canopy. Great trunk and awesome texture with the corking.

I’d move it to a bonsai pot if it was me. I think it’s ready! You can only achieve so much refinement in that huge pot. Looks ready for refinement techniques in my opinion.

Sweet tree!

Thanks for the comments and the feedback. Much appreciated! I'll have to move it to a bonsai pot soon.

 

[Michael P]

Great portulacaria! Very minor quibble--the apex of the daughter looks a little underdeveloped to me. Maybe reduce the mother's pad just above it and let the daughter's apex expand some?

 

[amcoffeegirl]

No critique but have you ever seen:

HOME | Little Jade Bonsai

www.littlejadebonsai.com

There are some great trees on the Instagram page that would inspire you!

 

[Hartinez]

It’s a great tree for sure. As is though it doesn’t feel like a mother daughter. More like a double trunk informal upright or broom. The apex on the daughter is non existent and is more a branch on the mother tree. This is not a bad thing though as these always seem super dense and in my opinion look best that way.

 

[Carol 83]

I like it alot. If it was mine I would get it out of that big pot and put it in a bonsai pot.

 

[canoeguide]

I like the planting height that you have it at now. Something bothers me about the higher planting heights shown. Agree that this is ready for a bonsai pot!

 

[cbrshadow23]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. It sounds like the two main things are
- Get the tree into a bonsai pot
- Work on the 'daughter's' apex

I'm not sure I fully understand the 2nd point about the apex. I'm not pushing back on the idea, just saying that I don't follow what you mean about giving that part of the tree a better apex. It sounds like it needs more growth - taller and more girth. Is that right?

 

[Potawatomi13]

Liked much better with most foliage. More branching more interesting.

 

[cbrshadow23]

Liked much better with most foliage. More branching more interesting.

Are you referring to the photo where I had let it grow wild? In that photo there was lots of crossing branches and weird uneven growth. It's hard to imagine liking that one more than the trimmed tree!

 

[sorce]

I like the tree but the definition of "mother daughter" is a wee uncomfortable in design...

Kinda like this....
Exactly like this.

Mother forces child to be lgbtq😦 #shorts

youtube.com

Sorce

 

[cbrshadow23]

I like the tree but the definition of "mother daughter" is a wee uncomfortable in design...

Kinda like this....
Exactly like this.

Mother forces child to be lgbtq😦 #shorts

youtube.com

Sorce

LOL, fair enough. From here on I'm happy to call it a double trunk or informal upright, etc.

 

[LanceMac10]

Great tree, whatever "style" you want to tag it with!

A nice, understated container would really cap it off. As opposed to that S&M styled apparatus it's currently sporting.

....strangely, I feel the need to pop the cork on a bottle of Port.....

 

[cbrshadow23]

Great tree, whatever "style" you want to tag it with!

A nice, understated container would really cap it off. As opposed to that S&M styled apparatus it's currently sporting.

....strangely, I feel the need to pop the cork on a bottle of Port.....

HA! Yeah air pots look bad but they work well for quick growth
What style/shape pot would you recommend for this tree? Rectangle or oval? Should the pot width be roughly the size of the canopy, or smaller?

 

[sorce]

I actually....kinda despise the look of any low "trunks" that get made into mostly branches of the other trunk.

It just doesn't seem "natural".

I'd want to see you work the tree to fit the description, giving that lil'n a reasonable apex.

I reckon it will take a long time but time only ever offers great rewards.

Does a masculine rectangle speak of "toxic masculinity" containing the women?

Or does it, like I feel, speak to a dead husband who still cares for his family?

I feel like spending mad loot on an NFT that can digitally burn that cartoonized picture, that's rather hard to look at.....

But the rounded rectangle seems a little weak for the base on that tree.
Actually I think it's a little too small.

Does that small pot speak of a weak man who attempts to contain his women?
When a wider pot will speak to allowing their room to grow?
What would make it look like his death was the only thing that allowed their growth?

I reckon an oval pot would symbolize a grandmother in the same context as a rectangle would a husband.

I think it's possible to use all the tiny details to tell anyone of these stories exactly how it should be told.

Ah...

This is the most important thing about the Emotion of a display of a Relationship that everyone has their own take on.

It's unlike a "formal upright" where emotion only comes after the viewing of the design.

These Relationship Displays of any Companions is displaying the Emotion straight away, so it becomes harder, and necessary to, follow through keen on the details of this Display of Emotion so it continues to make sense.

Hmmm....

We need to make them tell such a true story that even a foster kid wouldn't walk away from it, then no one will.

Sorce

 

[LanceMac10]

HA! Yeah air pots look bad but they work well for quick growth
What style/shape pot would you recommend for this tree? Rectangle or oval? Should the pot width be roughly the size of the canopy, or smaller?

The world is certainly your oyster here: glazed, unglazed, oval, rectangle....

...maybe a sort of compromise on shape and I think an unglazed pot with a darker clay might be nice against the light-ish corking and green foliage...excuse the soil-for-BRT cuttings...

....pretty easy to acquire in-expensively, but can get fancy...

I think you would want the width to be smaller than the canopy. Too big of a pot would make it look a smaller tree, no?
They can take a ham-handed re-pot, should be able to fit it into just about anything!

Full disclaimer: color wheels are for games of Twister and I was never good matching tops with bottoms....so you got the one or the other

California sounds pretty good right now....

 

[cbrshadow23]

I'm not opposed to getting a a new pot, but I do have a few pots already that might work. They're oval though. Here are (2) pots that I own. I photoshopped them, but the size/scale is exactly correct. Which of these two would be best? The brown one is a Japanese pot that I won in a raffle, and the black/blue glazed one is from an American potter (Shawn Bokeno) that I won in auction.

 

[Firstflush]

What my eye goes to immediately is the gap on the daughter. The second branch at about the middle wrap of wire (or slightly right), you may consider a secondary coming slightly at the viewer to about 7 or 8 o’clock. Just what my eye was drawn to…..