Ficus obliqua 'banyan style'

[Ash]

I am posting this to follow on from a chat about styles of wild figs. This tree is one of my favourites for sentimental reasons. It was collected in 1981 by my bonsai mentor (the same year I was born). The collected tree was divided into seven trees and they now reside in various placed around Australia from Cooktown to Ballarrat. The trunks remain pretty much unchanged. She gave it to me for my 21st birthday and I have loved it ever since despite the fact that it breaks 'every rule in the book'. I have continued to train it to look like a banyan of Ficus obliqua like you find on the coast with branching low, upswept branches and vertical hanging aerial roots. I remove stray roots each year and wire and pin the others to hang vertically. It is overdue for a repot but I am hanging out to find a new oval shaped pot for it- one that is a tad shallower.

Ficus obliqua banyan.jpg

[Jamie]

hi mate

nice work! I like it

tell me what are the dimensions on this baby? I reckon I have a pot that I can sell ya that is perfect size for this and exactly what will suit the tree

jamie

[Regan]

Nice work mate, once you get some fine ramification going on it will be an absalute ripper

[Ash]

Hi Jamie and Regan, Thanks guys, Jamie this tree is 35 cm tall and 60 cm wide. The pot it is in is around 40 cm wide. It was previously in a shallow 1 cm deep tray for years which has become too small and in which the tree lacked vigour. It went into this pot last year. It has not big roots greater than 1 cm below the soil level.
cheers
Ash

[Taffy]

That one looks real good Ash.

Sure does show that it has some age about it. Are you looking for a wider oval pot - or about the same width?

[Ash]

Hi Tman, Looking for a pot wider, shallower and I think an oval, probably in unglazed or earthy coloured glaze + maybe with a bit of texture. I don't ask for much do I
Pot suppliers up here are few and far between.
Ash

[Steven]

G'day Ash,

This sure is a beautiful tree which is all the more special due to its history!
Not only have you captured the essence of a wild fig but you have preserved the integrity of the tree by not conforming to the rules.
Reminds me of a quote I love by Walter Pall...

This is a tree. It has no clue about bonsai rules.
The 'crossing the trunk' rule is an invention. It is an acquired, learned taste. It can be unlearned.

You have unlearned well Ash

Regards,
Steven

[Ash]

Thankyou Steven,

It is hard to unlearn bonsai rules. I started bonsai young (at 12) so I have spent more of my life now looking at real trees through 'bonsai glasses' than I ever did looking at trees without them. This made it very hard to unlearn rules but as I am getting older I am loving my wild trees more than the bonsai I see in photos. In painting we use tricks such as 'crossed trunks' on a flat page to create perspective and increase depth so I can't see why they can't be used in bonsai.

Today I try to cultivate a frame of mind that 'if it occurs in trees it can occur in my bonsai'. Not all branches hang downwards and not all trees have a single trunk line or a triangular outline. Reverse taper and aerial roots are one rule that causes problems for many people. In wild banyan figs you DO find reverse taper. Should it then be in bonsai? (I can tell you after 29 years there is definitely reverse taper in the above tree). Thickening above a column of aerial roots is particularly common in coastal vine scrub Ficus microcarpa and Ficus obliqua and in Ficus virens. What is not common is single huge aerial root the same thickness as the trunk (except maybe in Ficus macrophylla var. columnaris from Lord Howe Island). The roots are usually columns of smaller roots enmeshed together. Therefore if an aerial root gets too thick I prune it, wet the cut with rooting hormone and start again with smaller roots.

cheers

Ash

[Jamie]

hi mate,

I thought the tree was around that size, this pot I have is a perfect size, up to you if you like it, pm me

pot.jpg

[Graeme]

I like your philosophy Ash. For most of my Bonsai life I have followed the "Rules", understandable when one knows my Teacher and Mentor. I have taught the "Rules", I styled my trees to the "Rules" and made my trees conform to the "Rules". Now I practice my Bonsai for me (Rule 1) and not the Show Bench I find I am not so slaveshly following those same rules I enforced before.
I guess there are going to be those out there who wont like my tree style, but then Rule 1 will be inforced and I will be happy again.
Good on you mate, who knows, you might be developing the next "Rules" for Bonsai.

[Ash]

The ‘style’ topic is burning away again in another post at the moment Pup you firebug you I therefore decided to put in an update on this tree that I called a ‘banyan’.

I went for several bush-walks and park-walks to look at banyan figs to decide the proportions and shape of the foliage mass, the angle of the lower branches and the upper branches. The foliage masses of many were wider than tall. The lower branches spread horizontally but the upper branches did not. None of the trees had a single trunk dominating or a defined apex. The side branches of this bonsai had slowly but surely lifted themselves up over the seasons and I still felt the emphasis on the main trunk was too strong. I wrapped several of the branches in paper 'rafia' to prevent the heavy gauge copper wire from scratching the bark as I applied it and also to spread the load when bent. This job was the last of my copper wire so I have had to use aluminium and therefore had to put in a couple of guy wires to effect the bends. I also brought a few branches forward so that in the future the central trunk is less obvious. One more trunk needs to be bent but I will need a branch bender.

Ficus obliqua banyan wired.jpg

Now this bonsai spreads more widely, has horizontal lateral branches and I think I have taken a bit of emphasis of the main trunk. There is plenty more to be done.
cheers
Ash

[Steven]

Coming along very nicely Ash! Perhaps even a bit wider/longer branches would suit?

Did you happen to get any photographs of the figs in wild? It would be awesome to see some examples here like I did with the Casuarina on my property; Branches, Nebari, trunks and Uro and Whole trees.

Regards,
Steven

[hugh grant]

i love this tree Ash it really captivates a fig growing in nature and makes a stunning bonsai. i like the work your doing on it, it makes it look more 'right' if you kmow what i mean.

Hugh

[Ash]

Below are photographs comparing my fig 5 years ago (top) with a recent image (bottom). Changes include pinning and training the aerial roots to hang vertically, gradual removal of unwanted branches and gradual lowering of the central trunk and widening of the crown. The shallow pot (1 .5 cm inside!) encouraged more aerial roots but was just too small for proper growth because it dried out every day so I put it into this training spare.

Ficus obliqua Banyan in 2005.jpg

Fobliqua.jpg

Steven I am collating my photographs of wild an park figs and will try to set up a post soon.

cheers
Ash

[Ash]

Here is un update of my banyan fig as it is today four or five years since the last picture. I have been continuing on with the same general style but also widening the canopy to closer to the proportions of a banyan fig. I will lower the outer branches a bit more over the coming weeks. cheers, Ash

Ficus obliqua banyan.jpg