ficus nerifolia - or whatever they're calling it now

centaura · 01-07-2011, 07:27 PM

So, I at one point got three ficus nerifolia planted together in a pot. They did not make a good composition, so I separated them. Two of them had some shape to work with as individual trees, but I was left with the third one, with no idea what to do with it. It had a very different nebari - it was all swept to one side in big swirls, but the tree itself was stick straight with just a clump of foliage at the top, and no branches.

It drove me nuts for years, the base kept teasing me that it could be something interesting, but the top frustrated me. Finally, I made a drastic decision - I cut the entire tree off, leaving just the base and a bit of trunk. I left it to grow and it sprouted all over the place - at the stump, below the stump, etc. So, about a month ago, I sat down and waded through the mess of new growth and was finally inspired in a design that I feel matches the interest in the base of the tree. The base doesn't have a really "natural" feel but a more artistic feel, so I went with that for the branches and canopy. I feel the end result will be more in line with penjing than traditional bonsai - but I think that works for this tree. Here are the pics, and the result.

-Centaura

Mattbonsai · 01-08-2011, 08:13 AM

Damn Centaura! Thats a really nice tree! What sort of conditions do you keep it in to get so much growth on it? My Ficus have always struggled / put minimal growth out and it puts me off growing the species really.

You definately went the right way with that tree, are you going to go for foliage pads when it matures or a complete canopy without distinct pads?

Cheer

-Matt-

centaura · 01-08-2011, 09:19 AM

He was put out in full sun over the summer time. I find it depends on the species of ficus how much growth I get off them. There are some, like ficus buxifolia, that don't ramify to save their lives. But there's something about the nerifolias - the normal rules don't seem to apply to them. For any other tree, or even any other ficus, I would never tell a person to cut back past where there are any leaves. But I've done that a few times with my nerifolias - and have been rewarded with absolute masses of new growth. It started out with one of the other trees from that original trio - it had all these long, spindly branches with foliage at the end. I decided to experiment - it wasn't a top quality tree, especially as it was, so if I killed it it wasn't going to be a huge loss. So, I cut the branches back to good lengths, instead of the traditional cut back to the last leaf. I put it out in the sun and it went nuts - with bursts of foliage sprouting from each of the stubs.

This guy was cut back to nothing - the trunk had originally been around 8" tall before there was any foliage, and I cut it back to 3" - well below where there were any leaves or branches. What would be near deadly to anything else, and the nerifolia burst out into growth. I'm trying to remember when I did the chop - if this is one summer's growth or two. I did the shaping work now on this guy, when its growing slower, so that the wire can stay on longer and set things better. I'm hoping to be able to leave the wire on for most of the winter, though I'm sure it will have to come off when it starts growing after being put outside next summer.

The species of ficus that I find give the most lush growth spurts (for me) are nerifolia, benjamina minnie lucy, benjamina kikki, wiandi, retusa, and many of the bigger leaved varieties. The ones that I find I have a hard time getting lush growth, or much ramification on are buxifolia, bejamina too-little, natalensis, & microcarpas green island and gold coin. Those seem to just want to grow slowly, on straight stems. I am hoping that with a lot of work I'll be able to get ramification on some of them, but I'm starting to despair over getting ramification on my buxifolias.

My normal routine is to do major cut backs right before I put them out for the summer. That way I'm trimming off most of the weak growth from being under the lights, and I have to worry less about sunburn, etc. And it lets the stronger outdoor light right into the branches which encourages lots of new buds to break.

What species of ficus have you been trying?

Centaura

treebeard55 · 01-08-2011, 10:37 AM

I agree with Matt: you chose a good design for this tree.

I'm looking forward to seeing it "in person" within a year or two.

You can get drastic with the other end of a willow-leaf fig, too. I bought one from you, Centaura, last spring (after you cut the price to $2 to get it off your hands

); healthy, but the root-system was coiled spaghetti. I cut off most of the root system, making a flat cut across the just-underground part of the trunk. Then I potted the tree in a coarse mix and babied it until it showed new growth.

I don't have any pictures right now, for obvious reasons, but careful peeks have confirmed the development of new roots. I hope, I hope, I'm getting a nice radial nebari; that was the purpose of the flat cut. I'll try to remember to take some pictures at the next repotting in a few months, and we'll see exactly how the tree responded.

centaura · 01-08-2011, 01:43 PM

Well, this tree almost ended up on the sales table a time or two - but I kept coming back to thinking that the nebari was very interesting & different and thinking that some day I'll figure out what to do with the rest of the tree to match that interest. I don't have a picture of this tree before its trunk chop, but I did find a picture of the original trio they way they were given to me. This tree was the spindly one hidden behind the biggest tree. Like I said, it was not a great composition - it really was just three trees that someone put into a pot together. They're now all separate - maybe this afternoon I'll take photos of the other two trees.

centaura · 01-08-2011, 04:06 PM

Here are the other two trees. #1 is doing well, but #2 I've been struggling with its branch structure. That the tree that I had been doing a lot of the experimentation with - cutting it back severely and seeing where it would sprout. I'm leaning towards going down to just a trunk line this spring, and starting over from scratch with the branches. #1 needs to be thinned out and worked on, which I think I'm going to do this afternoon since I'm snowed in and not going anywhere else.

-Centaura

centaura · 01-08-2011, 04:46 PM

Here's a shot of one of the branches (of tree #1 from the last post), showing where it was cut and the number of places it sprouted around that cut.

-Centaura

centaura · 01-08-2011, 04:51 PM

Oh, and here's the reason why I'm trapped and bored silly.

-Centaura

dankone · 01-08-2011, 06:10 PM

wow you got hit pretty hard up there! like the styling you did with the tree, it's definitely mor to the penjing side, but i think that was it's calling as a potted tree. you have released it's true spirit.

centaura · 01-08-2011, 09:27 PM

Yeah, normally the snow hits just to the west of us, and the heavy stuff just misses us. In fact, round two of this stuff is hitting about 10 miles west of here right now. Not complaining, two and half feet is enough for now.

Trimmed nerifolia #1 this evening. That will help it under the lights - I took a lot of the top off, so the lower branches will get more light. Taking pictures is always helpful when working on trees, it helps you to see the over-all design of the trees. Looking at the picture of this tree really emphasized that the apex is too tall, and has branches that are too thick for their height in the tree. I'm thinking of cutting off the top few inches of the tree next spring and seeing what I get as resprouts.

-Centaura

01-08-2011, 08:13 AM	#2 (permalink)
Mattbonsai Tree Hugger In Training Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Cheshire, GB Posts: 810	Damn Centaura! Thats a really nice tree! What sort of conditions do you keep it in to get so much growth on it? My Ficus have always struggled / put minimal growth out and it puts me off growing the species really. You definately went the right way with that tree, are you going to go for foliage pads when it matures or a complete canopy without distinct pads? Cheer -Matt- __________________ -Matt- http://www.cheshirebonsaisociety.org.uk/index.html R.I.P Our Great Friend - Prowler, 24th November 2008

01-08-2011, 10:37 AM	#4 (permalink)
treebeard55 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Warsaw IN, USA USDA zone 5b Posts: 511	I agree with Matt: you chose a good design for this tree. I'm looking forward to seeing it "in person" within a year or two. You can get drastic with the other end of a willow-leaf fig, too. I bought one from you, Centaura, last spring (after you cut the price to $2 to get it off your hands ); healthy, but the root-system was coiled spaghetti. I cut off most of the root system, making a flat cut across the just-underground part of the trunk. Then I potted the tree in a coarse mix and babied it until it showed new growth. I don't have any pictures right now, for obvious reasons, but careful peeks have confirmed the development of new roots. I hope, I hope, I'm getting a nice radial nebari; that was the purpose of the flat cut. I'll try to remember to take some pictures at the next repotting in a few months, and we'll see exactly how the tree responded. __________________ Treebeard 55 Steve Moore http://hoosierbonsai.blogspot.com The most important bonsai tool is your brain.

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01-08-2011, 09:19 AM	#3 (permalink)
centaura Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: South Bend, IN Posts: 334	He was put out in full sun over the summer time. I find it depends on the species of ficus how much growth I get off them. There are some, like ficus buxifolia, that don't ramify to save their lives. But there's something about the nerifolias - the normal rules don't seem to apply to them. For any other tree, or even any other ficus, I would never tell a person to cut back past where there are any leaves. But I've done that a few times with my nerifolias - and have been rewarded with absolute masses of new growth. It started out with one of the other trees from that original trio - it had all these long, spindly branches with foliage at the end. I decided to experiment - it wasn't a top quality tree, especially as it was, so if I killed it it wasn't going to be a huge loss. So, I cut the branches back to good lengths, instead of the traditional cut back to the last leaf. I put it out in the sun and it went nuts - with bursts of foliage sprouting from each of the stubs. This guy was cut back to nothing - the trunk had originally been around 8" tall before there was any foliage, and I cut it back to 3" - well below where there were any leaves or branches. What would be near deadly to anything else, and the nerifolia burst out into growth. I'm trying to remember when I did the chop - if this is one summer's growth or two. I did the shaping work now on this guy, when its growing slower, so that the wire can stay on longer and set things better. I'm hoping to be able to leave the wire on for most of the winter, though I'm sure it will have to come off when it starts growing after being put outside next summer. The species of ficus that I find give the most lush growth spurts (for me) are nerifolia, benjamina minnie lucy, benjamina kikki, wiandi, retusa, and many of the bigger leaved varieties. The ones that I find I have a hard time getting lush growth, or much ramification on are buxifolia, bejamina too-little, natalensis, & microcarpas green island and gold coin. Those seem to just want to grow slowly, on straight stems. I am hoping that with a lot of work I'll be able to get ramification on some of them, but I'm starting to despair over getting ramification on my buxifolias. My normal routine is to do major cut backs right before I put them out for the summer. That way I'm trimming off most of the weak growth from being under the lights, and I have to worry less about sunburn, etc. And it lets the stronger outdoor light right into the branches which encourages lots of new buds to break. What species of ficus have you been trying? Centaura

01-08-2011, 06:10 PM	#9 (permalink)
dankone bonsai monk Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: huntertown IN zone 5 Posts: 27	wow you got hit pretty hard up there! like the styling you did with the tree, it's definitely mor to the penjing side, but i think that was it's calling as a potted tree. you have released it's true spirit.

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