Jimbosmith
Seed
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Hello all,
Thought id show of my ficus. Im a big fan of Ficus as bonsai and love the look of Ficus in their natural habitat with all the aerial roots. Im always on the look out for more, but good ficus material thats (cheap) is very hard to find.
First up we have probably one of the first trees i have in my bonsai journey, I bought this probably around 10 years ago. I didn't really know what i was doing back then and was new to bonsai so it didn't really do much for ages. It was around 4/5 years ago that i really started taking bonsai more seriously, my outdoor collection grew but so did my Topicals. Being From the United Kingdom the Ficus all over winter inside and spend the warmer months outdoors in direct sun or in a humid greenhouse again in direct sun. I over winter on a windowsill with no additional lighting or particular care.
This photo is from 2021 and the second photo is from earlier this year. Ideally id like to form some aerials but so far its not playing ball
My Next project has been through some phases, again roughly from 2021. Its funny looking back at trees. I remember when i bought this i was super happy with how it looked. But when i look back i see some very obvious flaws and probably wouldnt have picked it now. I think it was fairly cheap though. With all my Ficus i repot them as soon as i get them as i find the nursery soil they are often sold in here is far too wet and i see signs of root rot. I was kinda lost with this tree. I let it grow out and styled it a few times and it put out lots of growth and loved spending time in the greenhouse over summer. As time went on though i couldnt look past the very straight section of trunk after the initial bends. So during a Defoliation in june i did a complete restyle/restart of the tree. I feel we have more taper and movement in the trunk and im letting the tree grow freely to see what new branches i get to work with.
Root over Rock (Fake it until you make it)
Im not sure i have a photo of this when i bought it it was 2022, but like i mentioned before i report all my ficus as soon as i buy them(from garden centers) when i repotted this one i found a split trunk/big roots buried below the soil. The only idea i had was to make it a root over rock to fill the void. So i headed to the closest fish store and picked out a rock they had and set about carving the rock with a grinder to fit the trunk. Tree was placed on and styled and its been left to grow since, im going to report next summer and see how well its gripping the rock. Plan for next year is to let a shoot in the apex grow to try and get some more taper into the trunk at the top, im hoping as the roots thicken the dramatic Sbend is hidden more.
Willow Leaf Ficus
Quite a hard species to get hold of in the United Kingdom, i was luckly enough to find this on Ebay from a seller interested in trees/plants the grow bulbus roots, wasnt interested in bonsai at all. Unsure where he got it from. This is largest i have, and shows the progress over the past 2years with the final image showing its new pot and regrowing after a defoliation. I had to correct a number of faults with this tree with very spindly growth and just areas where lots of branches came from the same location . I find that here the progress atleast for me is slower than Microcarpa and they struggle more in winter but im getting the hang of growing them now. I have probably 8, one that will be shown later and a number in development/cuttings. With this tree, im not happy with the roots, one side has lots of visible roots and the other side has nothing at all. I will be growing out some cuttings in the hopes of grafting some roots in place.
Final tree in this initial post is another Willow Leaf Ficus
New to me this year, i arrived from Spain i believe, currently the trees not doing too great and it had a heavy infestation of scale. So im hoping it makes it through the winter. I havent repotted yet. First image is how it arrived and the second image is an initial styling. i cant really say much about this tree as its still new to me. It has a fairly gnarly scar half way up the trunk, im undecided on what part this will play if any. But next season i will study the tree some more.
Thought id show of my ficus. Im a big fan of Ficus as bonsai and love the look of Ficus in their natural habitat with all the aerial roots. Im always on the look out for more, but good ficus material thats (cheap) is very hard to find.
First up we have probably one of the first trees i have in my bonsai journey, I bought this probably around 10 years ago. I didn't really know what i was doing back then and was new to bonsai so it didn't really do much for ages. It was around 4/5 years ago that i really started taking bonsai more seriously, my outdoor collection grew but so did my Topicals. Being From the United Kingdom the Ficus all over winter inside and spend the warmer months outdoors in direct sun or in a humid greenhouse again in direct sun. I over winter on a windowsill with no additional lighting or particular care.
This photo is from 2021 and the second photo is from earlier this year. Ideally id like to form some aerials but so far its not playing ball
My Next project has been through some phases, again roughly from 2021. Its funny looking back at trees. I remember when i bought this i was super happy with how it looked. But when i look back i see some very obvious flaws and probably wouldnt have picked it now. I think it was fairly cheap though. With all my Ficus i repot them as soon as i get them as i find the nursery soil they are often sold in here is far too wet and i see signs of root rot. I was kinda lost with this tree. I let it grow out and styled it a few times and it put out lots of growth and loved spending time in the greenhouse over summer. As time went on though i couldnt look past the very straight section of trunk after the initial bends. So during a Defoliation in june i did a complete restyle/restart of the tree. I feel we have more taper and movement in the trunk and im letting the tree grow freely to see what new branches i get to work with.
Root over Rock (Fake it until you make it)
Im not sure i have a photo of this when i bought it it was 2022, but like i mentioned before i report all my ficus as soon as i buy them(from garden centers) when i repotted this one i found a split trunk/big roots buried below the soil. The only idea i had was to make it a root over rock to fill the void. So i headed to the closest fish store and picked out a rock they had and set about carving the rock with a grinder to fit the trunk. Tree was placed on and styled and its been left to grow since, im going to report next summer and see how well its gripping the rock. Plan for next year is to let a shoot in the apex grow to try and get some more taper into the trunk at the top, im hoping as the roots thicken the dramatic Sbend is hidden more.
Willow Leaf Ficus
Quite a hard species to get hold of in the United Kingdom, i was luckly enough to find this on Ebay from a seller interested in trees/plants the grow bulbus roots, wasnt interested in bonsai at all. Unsure where he got it from. This is largest i have, and shows the progress over the past 2years with the final image showing its new pot and regrowing after a defoliation. I had to correct a number of faults with this tree with very spindly growth and just areas where lots of branches came from the same location . I find that here the progress atleast for me is slower than Microcarpa and they struggle more in winter but im getting the hang of growing them now. I have probably 8, one that will be shown later and a number in development/cuttings. With this tree, im not happy with the roots, one side has lots of visible roots and the other side has nothing at all. I will be growing out some cuttings in the hopes of grafting some roots in place.
Final tree in this initial post is another Willow Leaf Ficus
New to me this year, i arrived from Spain i believe, currently the trees not doing too great and it had a heavy infestation of scale. So im hoping it makes it through the winter. I havent repotted yet. First image is how it arrived and the second image is an initial styling. i cant really say much about this tree as its still new to me. It has a fairly gnarly scar half way up the trunk, im undecided on what part this will play if any. But next season i will study the tree some more.
so it’s a slow process haha. I keep experimenting though and trying new techniques
