Was out at a random garden centre today and found this fig amongst some other random trees. I asked the bloke that ran the nursery how much and if he knew what it was. He didn't know the species but did mention that it was a bonsai
I asked how much and he said seeing as it was a "bonsai" it would have to be $30, because once he trimmed it and put it in a pot he would get $120-$130 for it, again
Anyway for $30 I thought it was a fair enough bargain, and figured that there could be a potentially nice shohin in it given a few years and a bit of work. there are however some flaws but seeing as it's a fig I think they should be overcome quickly enough. I intend to trunk chop this tree heavily and build a branch structure from what pops up.
Here's the tree from front option 1 and the nebari from this side If I used this is a front I would work off of a 3 trunk base, with the middle trunk being the tallest and the other 2 staggered in height
front option 2 Nebari from option 2 This front would allow for a 5 trunk tree/clump and may make a more interesting tree, but will be a bit more of a challenge design wise.
What are the opinions on possible styles with this tree? I plan to try and remove any crossing roots and hopefully over time this will all fuse to a pretty impressive nebari but I don't know exactly what will happen so any opinions on this would also be most welcome.
Now for the identification, it currently has very small leaves, which was one of the reasons I was drawn to it initially. I don't think the leaves have been intentionally reduced but more a favorable by product of possible lack of food/care as there are some bigger leaves
Here's a shot of the leaves I thought maybe nerifolia but the leaves also seem somewhat benjimina like, only to me a little thicker?
and here's a shot for scale against a leaf from one of my pj's and a large bic lighter. The PJ used for this was defoliated twice last season and has reduced somewhat compared to its normal leaf size Any and all advice on identification and styling would be most appreciated!
Cheers,
Kez
