Ficus benjamina

Jon Chown · Post by **Jon Chown** » November 17th, 2008, 5:04 pm

My next door neighbour was throwing this one out and asked if I wanted it - I said no but I'd get rid of it for him anyway.

my pics 063.jpg

Just as soon as he had gone home, I got out the scorpion and reduced the size.

my pics 060.jpg

The roots were almost non existant once we had washed all of the soil off and cut back the long ones that had coiled down to the bottom of the pot.
I repotted this spring and we will have to give it a big dose of nitrogen.

Fig - Benjamina.jpg

Yours in Bonsai
Jon

Post by **kcpoole** » November 17th, 2008, 5:22 pm

Damn I wish he was my Neighbour

stymie · Post by **stymie** » November 23rd, 2008, 4:26 am

You are very right to keep that tree Jon. The divergence of direction between the two branchings is currently disturbing to the eye but I'm sure that you have designs on either reducing or removing one of them in the future. =Don. aka Stymie.

Jon Chown · Post by **Jon Chown** » January 26th, 2009, 9:20 am

This fellow had thrown out numerous shoots so I decided to defoliate and have a look at exactly what I had to work with and see if I could improve that slingshot that Stymie talked about.

When I first looked at what I had all those years ago, this is what I saw:-

my pics 066.jpg

Upon reflection, the tree has not progressed much at all in all this time, I think that it was closer to death than I anticipated but it seems to have settled well after the last repot and is producing new growth all over.

Hers is a photo of the back of the tree. I chose this as the rear due mostly to the many large scares that resulted in the removal of unwanted trunks. I am now considering this as a front option. I am also considering the removal of the lone protruding root and perhaps even the small left hand trunk.

23-12-08 021.jpg

Suggestions and comments welcome.

Jon

anttal63 · Post by **anttal63** » January 26th, 2009, 10:00 am

ok jon boy now ya gettn down to the buissness. im proud of ya. just careful with making that canopy to symetric. needs to be less heavier on the left. imo

btw have you checked stymie avatar, he's screwing up his face its freakn me out.

MelaQuin · Post by **MelaQuin** » January 29th, 2009, 6:57 pm

From the photos I like the back better as the front. When next you repot can you bring that left hand root closer to the trunk? If not I think you are right to eliminate it - it's not doing a great deal for the tree. This looks like it has the makings of a nice bonsai in a few years, very interesting character trunk. Looking forward to future posts on its development.

Jon Chown · Post by **Jon Chown** » January 29th, 2009, 10:00 pm

From the photos I like the back better as the front.

Thanks mate, I'm beginning to think the same.

Jon

avpslayer · Post by **avpslayer** » April 24th, 2009, 5:44 pm

Good idea great start to a great tree !!

EdwardH · Post by **EdwardH** » June 16th, 2009, 12:10 pm

Hi Jon,

Great start. Looks very promising. I would make the current back into the front and maybe shorten the trunk/branch on the left by about 1/3 as the straight line is a bit boring. This would also develope a better taper. I would also remove the root on the left hand side. All in all a good example of what a bit of judicious pruning can achieve.

I don't suppose that your neighbour has a second ficus that he wants to throw out?

Jon Chown · Post by **Jon Chown** » June 16th, 2009, 5:54 pm

I don't suppose that your neighbour has a second ficus that he wants to throw out?

Sorry Edward, you could have purchased this one a few weeks ago as I have sold up and am travelling around Australia with five little ones that I decided to keep. I sold all of my pots, figurines, stands and quite a few of my bonsai and the remainder are being well looked after by a couple of ex members of this site.

Jon

Chris · Post by **Chris** » June 16th, 2009, 8:05 pm

i find if you keep in touch with the older folk in your local area you can find ppl who are willing to let you take some trees. i have picked up about 4 this way, but must say they havent been anywhere as near a bonus tree as that one you have. i have even gone to the local comunity bourd asking to have a service to remove trees for free. today i went down to a site along the highway where there have been heaps of trees cleared for new housing. i am heading back down tomorow to pick up at least 6 exelent olive stumps. i had a choice of at least 60 trees WOOT WOOT the cost is one carton of beer

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72174393@N00/

NO TREE IS SAFE

ketutg · Post by **ketutg** » June 16th, 2009, 9:31 pm

some nice olive stumps loopeozzie which highway are they on?

Chris · Post by **Chris** » June 16th, 2009, 10:23 pm

pt wakfeild road heading north towards virginia south australia they will be gone in 2 days

Bretts · Post by **Bretts** » June 16th, 2009, 10:36 pm

Whereis tells me I can be there in just over 11 hours from here. Plenty of time

ketutg · Post by **ketutg** » June 17th, 2009, 5:02 pm

loopeozzie wrote:pt wakfeild road heading north towards virginia south australia they will be gone in 2 days

Didn't realize there were olives like that down there.
Have fun collecting the stumps!

I finally found a some new buds on a stump that i collected last year and may collect some more this year

AusBonsai

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