Fig Clump Forest ?

[Bretts]

I got this fig clump in a 3 group deal about a year ago. I think I paid too much for it but it had to come with the deal and I wanted the other two. Basically I got three trees at about 30% discount of what the owner paid. I think he paid too much for this one to start with.
I worked out this one probably cost me $200

I think there is a clump or forest in there some where but I think I need some help finding it

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[Jamie]

definately a clump in there for sure brett! if it is really healthy, start by defoliating every leaf, and then go from there!

jamie

[Shannon]

Hey mate I like the 4th pic as a front I'd put plenty of movement in the trunks, I finish styling a similar tree the other day.......
Here's a few pic's.......

[Edward Scissorhand]

Brett, looking at the lovely movement in the trunk, I would be tempted in elongating the righthand side and making it into a semi-cascade. Only because a clump may slightly hide the trunk withits canopy, whereas a semi cascade or even a cascade may show off its trunk movement much more. Keeping in mind also that the twist and curves will only get better as time progresses. It slightly reminds me of the movements in a dragon.
Shannons lovely clump is different to yours because its roots are just like an interwoven fabric which looks good as a clump. Anyway its only an opinion.

[anttal63]

great work shannon; thats the way i'd be taking this piece bretts.

[Bretts]

Ah I new someone was mucking around with a clump forrest Shannon and that is what I would love to do with this it looks fantastic but I am not sure it will work that way. I also thought about the stump forest style that Robert Stevens has been doing

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Something like this might be possible but alot of the stump would be carved away. There has been no deterioration of the deadwood with no special care!

Thanks for the semi cascade idea Edward that is an interesting option I will consider.

What do you think will happen if I just cut this back hard(instead of defoliating) as the growth is quite leggy at the moment.

It is pretty healthy. I would rather give it one more season to toughen up before I punish it too much but I think it could take a chop.

[Bretts]

Removed some of the deadwood and the large root at the front that was in the way.
Starting to see that Line Edward was talking about but I asm still undeciden which way to go.
A close up of the front and back now.

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The circled bit could be moved down as it has it's own root. Maybe that will suit the flow better?

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[Bretts]

Thought I might as well move it. I ended up removing the connection and uprooting this section to move it. The roots should sustain it and I would expect to get some roots on the section that is now in the dirt.

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A bit hard to see how it will look at the moment but I think this will work after a bit of tweeking of the position/angle. As well as opening up that line to the right it also brings some branches to the front plane as a big issue with this is that most branches are coming from the back.

[Shannon]

Hey Bretts, I found it difficult to determine the front and flow of my clump, I started by defoliating (as jamie said) then wired everything i could and had a bit of a play moving things around until it just clicked.

But it will still need a lot of fine tuning ..... (another day)