ficus benji. broom style??? or is there something else??

[Jamie]

hey people,

this is a ficus benjimina i have had for a couple of years. it has been the home to a paper wasp nest with wasps included for the past few months so i decided it was time to evict them as i wanted to do some work on this one! so out come the hose and out went those bloody wasps. they would nail me every time i disturbed the foliage when i was watering, so you could imagine that i was starting to get sick of it.

after sitting back and looking at it for a while i decided that there was a spot where the trunk was chopped with a couple of spindly branches coming of it not making much use for themselves in the overall design. that went with quite a large angled cut. now in my climate and being the time it is, this should take root quite readily and will make an excellent little shohin one day

as for the rest of the tree i figure with its overall shape and the way the branches were i would be going for a broom style. i am not sure i have convincingly pulled this off yet. i find a few sections of the tree distracting. i am hoping when this fig fills out this will change. my only other issue with broom style is that a section at the front is quite open and bare. i am not sure how to rectify this you will see it in the pics any way.

so if any one has some advice or comments, they are as always greatly appreciated
feel free to take this one to the photoshop if you wish aswell

regards jamie

[MasonC]

love this jamie! This looks like a nice fig. any shots of now?

[Jamie]

hey mate, how you see it in the pics is how it is at the moment. i only got to it a week ago
im still quite unsure about what i have done. i am gonna get rid of either the left or right hand side, then develop from there, i havent decided yet,
one thing i have decided is that i will be using a technique i seen on a lindsay farr video on getting ficus to throw out airial roots. it invovles making small incisions in the trunk and inserting a stone to hold it open, then once you have them in all the spots you want you create a surround for it and fill with a mix of sand, or sphagnum moss or the like

glad you like it though mate


regards jamie

[MasonC]

woops....didn't see when you got it. yer it would look better if you could get one of them to form the broom by itself. It looks like it's on the right track though. Can't wait to see what happens in the future!

[NathanM]

Dude, that's a great start there! I'm liking it!! =)

[Jerry Meislik]

I think you have a great broom style tree. I would not change it to another style but you do need to pull, wire some sub-branches forward especially in the top half of the tree to produce a fuller apex in the front. You have enough branch density on the back.
Just needs some fine wiring to accomplish.
Good luck.
Jerry

[Jamie]

jerry i completely missed your post until now thanks for the advice, i was just thinking about this tree today and still am unsure about where to go with it, since i cut it back from when i opriginall posted the tree it is full of new growth again.

thanks for the tips, i will se what i can do with the fine wiring.


thanks mate


jamie

[nilushi]

Hi Jamie , Merry X mas
I like your tree,it has a nice trunk base and good nebari.A great tree in the future.
Also i would like to see it now - with lots of growth,hopefully.
But the right hand branch bothered me a lot. If it is my tree i will get rid of it and develop the tree with ealier apex.If you still wants to go for a broom style,i think still it has a possibility.
This is a very ugly virt i have drawn, with lots of disturbances with kids.

Ficus new 2.jpg

Happy Holiday.
Nilushi

[Jamie]

hey nilushi

merry christmas to you too

i have recently been in contact with a friend who has done a great virt of this tree for me and where to go with it, i think it will be end up an informal upright sort of a tree but have a similar rounded canopy of that to a broom, thanks for the virt i know what its like getting distracted by kids i have twin 8 YO girls and an 11month old bub too

semi restyle.jpg

i think this will be tha way to go, it is using the existing branching available and everything that is on the tree, i just now need to get rid of the wasps that are nesting in this fig so i can start some work on it blasted wasps.

i will get a pic of how it is today for ya before restyle and then after, hopefully i can get it somewhere close to the virt.

cheers for taking the time to do the virt though mate


jamie

[Jamie]

hey people.

i have had a young dog (pup) OH BUGGER moment. big time...

as i was trying to rewire and restyle this tree to the virt i had been done for me i did this with the left hand trunk...

ficus oh bugger.jpg

it busted.... big time, didnt give me any early warning signs either, then SNAP! that dreaded noise we hate to hear..

so after a bit of thought and some more VERY CAREFUL bending i have come out with this, it is thinned out a lot now again which should be fine as figs love a good prune and this one is no exception

this is how it has turned out

ficus benji restyle.jpg

i will get the pic to look better and repost soon.

the one thing this oh bugger moment has done is it has increased the taper dramatically so thats a positive out of it

cheers.

jamie

[Jamie]

heres a better pic, colour wasnt right it was to bright outside for pics and i dont have a studio set up for picture taking.

ficusrestyle adjusted.jpg

[aaron_tas]

sorry jamie, funny thing is i was just about to ask if you had thought of cutting off exactly what you did, when i scrolled down and hey presto

i think in this image you have the movement of the trunk pretty good, but the strong nebari on the other side of the main direction is a little misleading, there is many techniques to improve this, im sure you know a few...

love your work

[Jamie]

hey pal

the odd thing is i didnt cut this by choice, the cut was made to neaten up the big tear from when i clean snapped it bar a shread of bark.

i do know bout the roots, that will probly be done tomorrow when i get some fresh soil to repot this one the nebari is quite horrible really, it was never fixed from when the tree was originally done, i got it as a tree sold as bonsai but wasnt really a bonsai if you know what i mean, i had just seen some potential there and for 30 bucks i couldnt say no

will update tomorrow when i repot, hopefully i will be able to show a tree with some nice healthy foliage and nebari in a short time.


cheers


jamie

[anttal63]

its meant to be! well done jamie i look forward to seeing what you do with the roots.

[Jamie]

well heres something i am gonna throw out there that i need some opinions on.

i done a ground layer on a ficus retusa a bit of 4 weeks ago, basically it wents nuts and is now off the parent tree, i am thinking of doing the same with this, i dont usualy let the cat out of the bag until it is a success but needing advice for this one as i dont want to stuff it, what do you think???

something like this

groundlayer.jpg

where i used a plastic nursery pot cut in half, wrapped round the tree after a ring bark and rooting hormone applied then filled with a propagation mix?

so option 1- ring bark and ground layer where i want a new nebari?

option two- cut off the ugly roots and rework the nebari into something reasonable?

any other options let me know.

i am leaning to ring bark as i would get a really strong neater nebari, but the down side is it might be to neat for a fig?



jamie