What should I do with this Ficus group?

[_space_bard_]

A couple years ago I drove to Flagstaff for a Dr. appointment. It's a 2 hour drive from where I live so I figured I'd make an afternoon of it and stop by some thrift shops. In one of the thrift stores they had this Ficus patch growing in this god awful looking blue plastic pot with no drainage holes. They only wanted $30 for it so I decided to "rescue" the poor thing. The first thing the wife and I did was drill some drainage holes on the bottom which caused about a gallon and a half of sitting water to pour out. I don't know how long it was growing in swamp conditions but it didn't seem to mind lol. We then cleaned up the back buds at the base and tried to make it presentable. I ended up buying a Terracotta pot about the same size as the ugly blue pot the next time I was out of town and we transplanted it. It lost a lot of leaves from all the traveling, poking and prodding, and repotting. It took about a year to start shooting out new growth. The problem is it's not the prettiest Ficus specimen as all of the trunks are bunched together and have grown straight up like a broomstick without any movement. My wife has talked about giving it away to someone because it's taking up too much space in our bedroom. I remember seeing some pictures of people that wrapped a group of ficus trunks together with plastic and tightly clamped them together causing aerial root growth and grafting. I'm not sure how long that would take with this but I figured maybe I could do something like that to get a thick trunk, and then chop it. What are your expert opinions? I don't even know what species of Ficus it is, we have another Ficus tree that has larger and darker leaves that naturally moves as it grows instead of broomsticking like this one.

 

[Redwood Ryan]

Honestly I'd just start chasing the foliage back. As it's a benjamina you have to be careful about leaving foliage on the branches, but you could safely cut back to a few sets of green leaves per branch and see what pops down below in terms of new buds.

 

[SWfloirda]

I would either do what Ryan said or embrace it for what it is, a very nice, decent sized tree in a pot.

 

[Shibui]

I'd say F. benjaimina too. As noted a little more temperamental than some species but they will still fuse if you want to try.
Tape the trunks tightly together with duct tape or similar. It does need to be tight to force the trunks to fuse, otherwise they just push each other away as they grow.
There's a couple of pitfalls with this technique:
1. Fused trunks often have no taper. A thick telephone pole is no better than a clump f thin ones.
2. Branching will all be at the top. May be OK for a broom style tree which does suit ficus.

I'd be trying to tape all the trunks at the base but a you go up leave one or 2 out of the bundle. This should give the fused trunk taper and you can use the protruding ones as branches in the final design.

If that's too difficult you could just maintain a smaller version of what you already have. Should be easy enough to reduce height and spread by following @Redwood Ryan advice. Cut hard but always leave a few leaves on each stem.

 

[penumbra]

I would either do what Ryan said or embrace it for what it is, a very nice, decent sized tree in a pot.

This is what I would do. Keep it as a nice house plant. There are many ficus which are easier to work on and make better bonsai.

 

[_space_bard_]

Honestly I'd just start chasing the foliage back. As it's a benjamina you have to be careful about leaving foliage on the branches, but you could safely cut back to a few sets of green leaves per branch and see what pops down below in terms of new buds.

By doing that, do you think I could eventually chase enough foliage back to achieve something similar to this? Even if it's on a larger scale.

 

[Redwood Ryan]

By doing that, do you think I could eventually chase enough foliage back to achieve something similar to this? Even if it's on a larger scale.
View attachment 388745

You could, but I don't think you should haha. This looks like a photo ripped from Bonsai Boy's website and not something I would personally strive towards.

 

[_space_bard_]

You could, but I don't think you should haha. This looks like a photo ripped from Bonsai Boy's website and not something I would personally strive towards.

You don't like Dr. Suess's Lorax style of Ficus?

Edit: And I just looked at where Google images got that image, Bonsai Boy

 

[_space_bard_]

I'm thinking maybe if I slowly cut it back to a slightly smaller scale, and either build a humidity terrarium box around it with plexi glass or wrap the trunks in moss and plastic wrap to promote aerial roots (but not to fuse), maybe that could fill out the spaces between the trunks and make it a little more attractive, even if I never decide to bonsai it.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Growing seasons around the world vary widely and it is difficult to get a perspective on what someone says when we don't know where in the world they are. If you go to the upper right hand corner and click on your Icon, you can add your location and people will be able to customize advice for you, and you might connect with another local. And just for you, add your elevation which matters greatly winter or summer, maybe especially for collecting.



<<<<< It will show here.

 

[Forsoothe!]

You might consider ripping them apart and arranging them into a forest. They're not as amenable as 'Too Little', But if you scale it up you can have a nice forest as a houseplant. The most difficult aspect of forests is the original layout, It needs to NOT look arranged. It needs to be laid out to look random. Usually two groups, one smaller group on one side and one larger group on the other side with a winding pathway between the two. No two trees should line up looking at them from any direction. Normally, you'd have two groups with an odd number of trees in each. They need to have enough trees in each group, arranged such that you cannot count them with your eye. You have whatever there is and need to use them to your advantage regardless of number. Once they have been together for a few years they are set in stone and cannot be recombobulated. That's good and bad. Good because they are easier to repot, bad if the arrangement is incorrect. Think about it. Here's a 'Too Little' group 15+ years old...

 

[_space_bard_]

Growing seasons around the world vary widely and it is difficult to get a perspective on what someone says when we don't know where in the world they are. If you go to the upper right hand corner and click on your Icon, you can add your location and people will be able to customize advice for you, and you might connect with another local. And just for you, add your elevation which matters greatly winter or summer, maybe especially for collecting.



<<<<< It will show here.

My apologies, I updated my info.

And I like the forest idea! I think I'll go forward with that.

 

[sorce]

I'd layer a bunch of forest's off it.

By the time you get to #4 or so you'll be pretty good at it!

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce