Ficus Benjamina 'Shorty'

[kez]

Well done with this tree Steven!

This is among the progressions on this site that for me just blew my mind. It is also a tree that inspired my (until recently) rather disinterested wife to make a comment that brought a smile to my face when I made her look at this tree last night, something to the effect of "wow, so much work has gone into that"

I think it is a testament to the work put in on this tree, and also hopefully for me a turning point and a green light haha

Love your work mate

Kez

[Steven]

Is it just in my garden or are other's finding that trees are still growing?

This Shorty has recently had a flush of new growth and I had to give it a trim the other night. Rewired a couple of branches at the same time.

2015 May (A).JPG

Regards,
Steven

[Ash]

Hi Stephen, Lovely tree. Ficus benjamina Shorty often has another end of season flush just around now - mine has as well. Ash

[Ces]

[Mine's growing as well. Dont think its a shorty though

[Rory]

I have had a few extra leaves too, but I cut mine back too hard last time, thus it is taking a while to come back. It has also put out new leaves recently.

I find that I even get a lot of growth in winter from natives that usually are not so active this time of year, primarily because the angle of the sun we get coming into winter. It is far better than the angle we get in autumn, so they thrive on the sun provided in winter.

Winter gives us our strongest uninterrupted sun, even though it is weaker. It gives my trees sun for much, much longer periods of the day than in any other season.

[Pearcy001]

Growth for me too. I have a Benji that's decided to put out the beginning of a new lowest branch 6cm up a 30cm trunk
Wasn't expecting that one at all haha. At most I thought a few new leaves this time of year.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

[boom64]

Hi Steven, Looking very good ,plenty of growth down here in the south coast. Actually trimmed a few today. Good fun. Cheers John.

[trident76]

Will depend on different climates around Australia of course, but my port jackson figs, moreton bay figs, willow leaf figs, tiger bark figs, african veld figs etc are still growing... Not for much longer, down to 15 degrees in Adelaide today

[Elmar]

i find that I even get a lot of growth in winter from natives that usually are not so active this time of year, primarily because the angle of the sun we get coming into winter. It is far better than the angle we get in autumn, so they thrive on the sun provided in winter.

Our local Shire has used lots Calls along the roadside up here and they've all got a 10-15 cm flush of new growth; in fact I was thinking I should take cuttings or do air layers to capture some of this growth and collect a number of new examples...


Cheers
Elmar

[Steven]

Quick update after a recent trim. Trying a more rounded (natural?) looking canopy than previously.

Which look do you prefer?

2016 November (R).JPG

Regards,
Steven

[Matthew]

Steven

This is looking awesome . Im liking the rounder canopy . I got to start spending the time taking better photos and more often . I have a canon eos with a macro lens what are you using , settings and distance etc? . Again great little tree

[Steven]

Thanks Matthew.

I'm using an older Pentax K20D with 50mm lens. f/4, 1/125, ISO-200, +0.5 step. Background is approximately 1500mm behind the tree and I'm holding the camera about 1000mm in front of the tree.

Regards,
Steven

[Pearcy001]

+1 for the rounded canopy. For me it gives it a much stronger look. Also the pot complements it extremely well with the slightly darker background compared to the previous photo, not sure if there was anything else you did differently this time when photographing the tree that may have caused this?

Cheers,
Pearcy.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

[kcpoole]

Much Nicer now

Ken

[melbrackstone]

This is one of the nicest most natural looking Benji's I've seen. Love it! Yes to the rounded crown too.