Old Forest - Ficus natalensis group from 1979

[chrisatrocky]

Jerry's suggestion.

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chris

[Jerry Meislik]

Chris,
Spot on!!!
Good work.
Jerry

[Ash]

Yes I think that I will take this path with fine-tuning plants rather than cut the roots. Maybe in addition to moss I will use small epiphytic ferns, orchids, maybe even Ficus pumila 'minica' to give it a rainforest understory appearance. Thanks Chris for the image - it shows what can be done very simply. I will keep you guys posted. cheers Ash

[Hornet]

I far prefer the way it is now, the roots look amazing and very natural. If it were my tree i wouldnt be touching the roots as they make this tree for me

[Brian]

That is worthy of inclusion tin the national collection.
Superb bonsai, you should be proud of it.

[Olivecrazy]

Very nice tree you have there

[Ash]

Here is an update of my Old Forest, perhaps Old Grove is a better name? In September 2012 I repotted it into its regular container but it lost vigour over the 2012-2013 season. The old pot was just too shallow to provide for the current mass of the tree. So in September 2013 I potted it into new a deeper pot which I hope improves the visual balance as well as the vigour of the tree. Now for a season of canopy fine tuning to get the canopy balanced to the pot!

Ficus natalensis new pot.jpg

Hope you like it.

regards

Ashley

[Timothy]

Beautiful. I love it .
What is the dimensions ?

[Boics]

Awesome hadn't seen this one before.
Really looks the part to me.
Inspiring group.

[marleey73]

Lovely forest I am sure it is enjoying its new home.

[Jerry Meislik]

Ashley,
The pot works great for the grouping. Love it.
Jerry

[NathanM]

G’day Ash, I missed this one until now!
Looks really great. You can tell it has a fair bit of age to it. Sure, some of the roots ae disctracting, but we all know how Natalensis roots get...
Natalensis is one of, if not, my favourite fig species. Great to see such an old composition of them!
New pot looks to be a better size.

[Ash]

Beautiful. I love it .
What is the dimensions ?

Spring the grove is 60 cm tall including the pot and 70 cm wide. Yes Nathan, I find Ficus natalensis roots grow unusually large and long like great long pipes! over the years they push themselves up out of the pot!
It is raining softly here the last couple of days so that should help it settle in more to its new pot. Thankyou for all your kind comments.

Ash

[Ash]

Hi,

The old fig grove has responded very well to the new pot and fresh growing medium (sigh of relief). I have been giving it a fortnightly dilute dose of powerfeed and on alternate fornights seasol. The response has been plenty of growth to start replacing some of the branches and structure that were lost last year. The picture below shows a small amount of work I did on the group this evening to thin the canopy and wire some branches into place. Once it has had a good season of growth I am thinking of using bonsaipotters novel approach graft technique (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16855) to put some branches back where I want them. The trees have become very hard and brittle so it is difficult to move trunks around, I broke one branch trying to move it so it is now a cutting to make another trunk.

Ficus natalensis before and after.jpg

Some of the shoots in the middle LHS of the front of the crown have been left untrimmed as they are the top of a couple of weaker trunks. I will work on them later in the season.

Future plan (intended graft front branches photoshopped on):

Ficus natalensis future plan.jpg

Ashley

[Jerry Meislik]

Looking good Ashley.
Jerry