Cactus Nursery Ficus

[hemmy]

Lol, a little magic cut paste and that cutting will heal in a few weeks

That's quite the dieback on the cutting. I had several cuttings that large and a couple had some large dieback. I suspect mostly from the absence of a branch/bud/node but I don't have a direct correlation yet. I tried some with/without paste on the last round of cuttings to see if it would make a difference. I don't think it will. (Note: Please don't torch his nice progression thread with a cut paste debate.)

 

[Giga]

Making me miss my ficus

 

[Chuah]

So, I bought a new Ficus . . . from a cactus grower!
[/ATTACH] View attachment 78920

It is great that you chopped it down to bonsai size. Whichever design you decide to use, twin trunk or banyan, I suggest you cut off the left front big root that U-turned towards the trunk base. Use aerial roots to fill up the gap between the front left and right big roots. I think that will create a better looking front nebari. Aerial roots are ficus's best friends.

 

[Chuah]

Making me miss my ficus

What happened?

 

[Jester217300]

What happened?

He sold it. Sellers regret.

 

[ColinFraser]

Whichever design you decide to use, twin trunk or banyan . . .

Decision made; check out the most recent photo above - no more second trunk
I kind of just took the path of least resistance to make it look vaguely tree-ish as soon as possible, and accepted the compromises (including those roots) that come with that. One of the nice things about the climate here is the lack of oppressive humidity, but that does mean that I can't count on aerial roots unless I go out of my way to enclose the trunk and encourage them . . .

Thanks for checking it out.

 

[Chuah]

Decision made; check out the most recent photo above - no more second trunk
Thanks for checking it out.

Did not read the posted date, it was from 2015! Thought your recent photos were for another ficus, my bad. Anyway, great progress!
I am at Rochester for the National Show, got my tree set up and helped out here and there. My wife and I helped pinning the table apron seams, a lot of squatting and getting up, enough knee workou for the day.

 

[ColinFraser]

Thought your recent photos were for another ficus, my bad. Anyway, great progress!

Thanks! It's been fun so far.
I hope your tree shows well good luck!

 

[Chuah]

Thanks! It's been fun so far.
I hope your tree shows well good luck!

Hi Colin, I took some photos with my point and shoot but no laptop to download the photos. Just got back from the award banquet, very surprised and happy that the ficus won the best Tropical Tree, and my wife won the best accent plant award! Two awards for one display.
Attached are the iPhone photos took for me at the announcement and award given by Pedro Morales.

 

[Chuah]

Thanks! It's been fun so far.
I hope your tree shows well good luck!

This is a better photo from my wife's iPhone two days ago after setting up.

 

[Maloghurst]

Thank god you cut this downto size, I don't know about anyone else but my first thought with this pic was "raised arm plant monster with raging hardon"

 

[ColinFraser]

"raised arm plant monster with raging hardon"

I think that's actually @M. Frary 's alternate username

 

[ColinFraser]

Hi Colin, I took some photos with my point and shoot but no laptop to download the photos. Just got back from the award banquet, very surprised and happy that the ficus won the best Tropical Tree, and my wife won the best accent plant award! Two awards for one display.
Attached are the iPhone photos took for me at the announcement and award given by Pedro Morales.View attachment 116742View attachment 116743

Congratulations!

 

[Solange]

The right, left, back, is more of an artistic principle to create depth and fill spacial voids rather than a paradigm. Art is made by using the rules and filling in the gray areas. You have no depth if you are missing side branches and a back branch. That's why the windswept style is hard to do well.

If you don't want any movement in your tree, go for it. Why skip out on a chance to create excitement in a static piece of material? Too each their own.

Art is much more than using rules and filling in gray areas!

 

[M. Frary]

Just raging hard on.

 

[ColinFraser]

Since the last cutback, new buds have started to push out, so I removed all of the old leaves to get a better look and let some light in. Looks like I need to get in there and do a little selection/directional pruning to remove crossing and in-growing branches and keep things going up and out . . .

 

[Chuah]

Since the last cutback, new buds have started to push out, so I removed all of the old leaves to get a better look and let some light in. Looks like I need to get in there and do a little selection/directional pruning to remove crossing and in-growing branches and keep things going up and out . . .

View attachment 117102

Colin, looks great and on its to way to become a beautiful tree.

 

[ColinFraser]

I had this tree down at the nursery the other day, so I snapped a "glamour shot" of it



Like all of my ficus, it was pretty quiet over the winter, but it's stared moving again now that the weather has warmed up. I'm planning to let it get pretty shaggy this time before another round of cuts and selections, and I'll probably leave a few specifics shoots to run.

 

[amcoffeegirl]

a "glamour shot" .

Lovely

 

[ColinFraser]

Still had it in the car when I stopped to meet some friends for beer on the way home, so I brought it in
Two of my favorite things, beer and bonsai!