AusBonsai

Hey all,



Ran up to a nursery to the north of me today to pick up some new stock. Came home with 3 new trees . This is my favorite of the 3, I think. It's a huge tree, and I'm definitely going to get tons of cuttings from it. It doesn't really have bottom branches, so I plan on fusing the cuttings I take from it, to it down low. The base is pretty sweet though, and is the main reason I bought it. Feel free to leave any comments!

Lovely healthy material with lots of potential. I agree, either try out a strangler fig style, or do just what you said - cuttings, grow their roots long and then fuse them back onto the trunk. good luck! Ash

Ash wrote:Lovely healthy material with lots of potential. I agree, either try out a strangler fig style, or do just what you said - cuttings, grow their roots long and then fuse them back onto the trunk. good luck! Ash

Thanks Ash, that sounds like the plan to me!

That's a nice looking base Ryan - was it a general nursery or a bonsai nursery ? What type of fig is it sold as over there ?

Bougy Fan wrote:That's a nice looking base Ryan - was it a general nursery or a bonsai nursery ? What type of fig is it sold as over there ?

Thanks Tony! It was a bonsai nursery. This is sold as Ficus microcarpa over here.

If push comes to shove, the red line here is probably where I'd chop this back to. That's where the lowest branch reasonable is...

Slip potted into a bigger pot, man I love that base:

While pine-esque, I kinda like this look....

The Ficus Guy wrote:While pine-esque, I kinda like this look....

Please no...

DustyRusty wrote:

The Ficus Guy wrote:While pine-esque, I kinda like this look....

Please no...

I don't see why not, if I like it. I don't feel like an umbrella style would really suit this tree, given the base that it's got. But hey, here's a shot of just the branchless trunk if you wanna show me what style you'd do...

It's probably just personal taste Ryan. I live in a part of Sydney where figs are growing all around me. Some planted, some wild. They're my favourite tree. What I've never seen is a fig with branches that lean downward like that. They go upwards and then downwards and often the tree is wider than it is high. I also never see a fig with a single formal upright or informal upright trunk. They always tend to split into multiple trunks quite soon.

I really like the tree you've bought so i've been following this thread. If it were mine, i'd do what you suggested early on and start fusing cuttings to it. this will make it form multiple trunks and give it more of a spreading feel.

The other option is to make it look like it's just strangled a tree. It would utilise the tall trunk and then split into mulitiple trunks just where it begins to narrow. It would then spread wide again.

Again, it's just personal taste. But when I look through my Bonsai books the figs that bore me are the ones with highly refined foliage pads with downwards leaning branches and the ones that raise my pulse are the ones that look like the trees i see by the water here in Sydney.

All the best with it, it's a beautiful tree.

by the way, if you want to see a good strangler style go to Tony Bebb's blog on this site and search 'convict fig'. One of the most superb examples of a fig i've ever seen. And in a style that is a bit different.