centaura

I've posted several shohin trees this week, so I thought I'd go to the other end of the scale and show a young picture of Goliath - a ficus microcarpa (probably retusa) with ficus gold coin foliage grafted onto it. He's a large tree I got on a trip to Florida a couple years ago. He is easily three if not four feet long, and is a heavy beastie. Right now I am working on developing his foliage pads, and I am taking all the back budding growth around its base and working to fuse it into the base to increase the girth and interest in the nebari. And, in proper homage to the late Prowler, he is shown sitting on my garbage can for this photo (for new members, Prowler was infamous for taking pics of his bonsai sitting on his garbage can). It works - my shed provides a fairly neutral background for an archive shot, though the weight of the pot was almost too much for the lid of the can.

-Centaura

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Phil

Wow...beautiful specimen Centaura!
I'm sure a good deal of the weight is in the pot but how is the balance?
Nice taper and definitely has some great prospects if you keep the foliage in good order.
Lots-O-luck when it needs to be re-potted!
Keep us informed with pictures as it goes along.
Just a shame "grumps" (Prowler) is not around to see this one as I'm sure he would love it and the garbage can setting!

~Phil~

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centaura

Its actually balanced quite well, though it did shift a little bit. Repotting it this last spring wasn't too bad, what was tough was finding a training pot! I can't afford a real bonsai pot for it for now, and when I got it it was still in a black nursery tub. I found this pot on clearance at Home Depot, and it was exactly the measurements that I was looking for for a final pot. I got it thinking of it as a training pot, but I have folks telling me they like it as a final pot. I'm still on the fence about that. I like the pot a lot, but I tend to show my trees in conservative shows and the fact that the pot is bi-colored I'm guessing won't go over well. Anyway, it works for now.

I actually got the of taking the photo of it on the garbage can from Prowler, someone wanted a shot of it this last summer and I was trying to find some place with a fairly neutral background. I was looking around my yard and low and behold, the garbage can wasn't a bad idea. Though if you look carefully, you can see the lid of the can denting in from the weight of the pot. I specifically put in more granite chips when I repotted, just to add enough weight to counterbalance the cascade.

-Centaura

treebeard55

Was that taken after the workshop with Jerry Meislik?

About the pot, I tend to agree: the hues overpower the tree a bit. (Not that that's easy! )

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centaura

Yes, this is a post-workshop shot. Jerry wanted a picture of it, so I had taken one to send to him. Jerry liked the pot - and there were others at the workshop that did to. Anyway, its going to be its pot for a while at least. I don't think I'll put this into a judged show just yet, it needs more work. But there are a couple of non-judged shows that I might bring it to next year. We always need to fill space at the spring show in Chicago, this guy can take up a whole table to himself not a problem!

-Centaura

AlainK

Very... Chinese.

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centaura

Oh, I'm sure that he's a chinese import. I just liked the movement on him, and I think he'll look good once I have filled in the foliage pads and done some more fusing around his base.

-Centaura