Ficus Benjamina - Progression Thread

[RODERLO]

Hi all,

This is one of those trees that eventually became a bonsai, but wasn’t planned to be from the get-go.

Three years ago I stuck three cuttings together without any thought, loosely wrapping them around each other.
I just thought it might become a cool house plant and didn’t care much about it beyond that.

Over time, though, I saw it growing well and it started to have some nice movement thanks to my regular pruning to keep it’s size in check.

Now I’ve finally come to a point where the final design became apparent to me. It’s definitely unusual and breaks some conventions (apart from being a benjamina in the first place ).

The idea is for it to have multiple elegant slender leaders, with natural movement and lots of taper.

I’ve planted new cuttings next to the base in early spring, which are allowed to fuse with the main trunk to beef it up. In time, I’ll decide whether to integrate them into the canopy or cut them off once they are merged with the tree.

Here are some before and after pics:



After the work:



Let’s see if this suboptimal species can make something of itself in future years.

 

[yamadoriboi]

Hope that works out for you. It's a really nicely shaped tree when you imagine it's fused already. How many years before you think the trunks will be properly fused?

 

[RODERLO]

Hope that works out for you. It's a really nicely shaped tree when you imagine it's fused already. How many years before you think the trunks will be properly fused?

Thanks! The trunks are already fusing pretty well. I reckon another 2-3 years until they’ve fully merged.

 

[gooeytek]

That's a pretty ficus. We had one with the braided trunks and grew to be 8' tall. It was kept indoors 90% of the time, rotated periodically in front of a West-facing bay window.