AusBonsai

Hi all,

introducing Ronin below, a beautiful 30 year old ficus that I have worked on today. The name is inspired by the man who grew this tree for the last 30 years, who, when it was leaving him, said that it had always reminded him of a samurai kneeling down. Well, already, in my clumsy hands, Ronin has had his battles...

This is Ronin before I began any work on him... This is Ronin after wiring and awaiting his new badass ribbed pot (fitted the whole warrior theme)... This is Ronin in his new pot with my root rake as a reference to size... just got to add the moss and the pebbles for my final shot now... ... ... ...

Ronin slipped... or rather I let Ronin slip, I let him down... literally. At this point I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. I looked around the garden for someone or something to blame, to yell at... but there was only me, myself and I.
So I called the place that I got the pot from, but being Boxing Day he wasn't open, so then I called Ray, and thank his cotton socks he was open!! So I raced in there and picked out another pot, for better or for worse. I was going to pot Ronin in a bonsai pot today if it killed me (or both of us...). No he wasn't going back in some crappy nursery pot or box or the ground to grow on for another 30 years. No.

So this is Ronin next to his new pot. It is a little deeper to give him more room to stretch, but still somber and rustic to match his gnarliness. And this is Ronin in his completed state. In the end I think it worked out for the best (otherwise what am I to think... pessimistically?) and I changed his angle a bit to lean ever so slightly more to the viewer. The moss took a beating in the fall, but I've put it there more to protect a couple of slightly exposed surface rootlets than for decoration.
I'm sorry for such a rough journey Ronin, I promise to try harder next time, and I am hopeful that you will be a forgiving fig.

Hi there, I like Ronin, and I am sorry about the first pot too. It was a nice pot.

Are you taking comments?

Ronin will be okay. I did mine in the last few days.

Cheers.

Hi Daiviet,
Comments would be great! I won't do to much else to him for now, just trim and de-wire/re-wire over summer. Got some plans for next Christmas though, get some movement is some of the straight bits etc. But any ideas would be great for me to get perspective.
I did like the first pot a lot, with its little studs, but the more I look at him Ronin seems more content in the new one, it is about the same thickness as his girth. Anyhow, can change the pot next year.
Thanks,
QTL

Hi there,

If I may have two comments:

1. The last photo, the highest root on the right hand side, for me, is a bit out of place. I would consider removing it? But this is very personal.
2. The pot -- you ran out of pot, didn't you?
   
   The current pot, for me, does not accentuate the strongest feature of this fig which is its trunk. I feel that the trunk is lost in the deepness of this pot.
   
   The style of the first pot is something I would use too, its shallowness show the strong trunk very well. The little lumps around the rim of the pot make the pot strong too.
   
   But would not do anything now. We must leave it for the next season. Now you will have a chance too enjoy larger leaves soon

I agree to both your ideas, that extended root to the right is holding a branch that I pulled around to the right, so I'll think about removing it when the branch has stuck, might do a virtual to see what it would look like.
I'm going back to the original pot supplier tomorrow to acquire a few more of the lumpy pots to have on hand, and next year Ronin will be more carefully placed in one. I'm kinda hoping the leaves just remain lovely and small... forever...

or that root could be swung around the back, it was quite mobile.

without that root...

an update:

Nice tree cool thread.

Nice tree and I think i agree that that front root on the right is out of place.
All the other drop straight down but that one does not. Your virt without it is better, and i am sure the tree will not miss it.

ps the shallower pot lie the origianal woud be better too .

Ken

Thanks Boics and Ken,

Yes... the shallower pot... haven't found one the same since I smashed the first, but might move it into another one I have here. I'll try and bend that root across to the back and down first with the re pot and see if that works.

so it's now in it's shallower pot, with that root pulled around the back, we'll see how it looks after a year ey? also seeing how a softer style japanese pot suits him, to balance his gnarliness.

I like Roan in this pot too

Thanks BonsaiLov, and I think that root at the back looks a little better tucked away behind. Couldn't cut it off... just couldn't...

The pot looks to be a better match, in size and colour. I'm thinking that the root tucked away around the back balances the two front roots - they might look a little lost if the back root gets cut off. Just my 2c. Thanks for posting the progression.

Gavin