Ficus Burtt Davyi Over Concrete Form

[John P.]

I’ve always really liked this composition, also with Ficus Burtt Davyi:

(I’d give credit if I knew who took the photo and/or grew this one.)

Years ago my youngest son and I were working on a project, when he decided to dump some leftover concrete in an empty juice box container. After it solidified it became less interesting to him and sat in the garage for a couple years. I decided to repurpose the formed concrete chunk in a modern nod to the above composition. And I get to think of him whenever I look at it.

After using a grinder to cut a more interesting angle into the base, I attached it to a porcelain tile using epoxy putty:




Last year, on August 13, 2022, I began …

 

[John P.]

Oh, real quick before I go into that—I had sketched out how I wanted it to look, probably during a conference call:


I had a scraggly rooted cutting that I wasn’t doing anything with and decided to put it to use. Thinking about here for placement:

Made some cuts to get the trunk closer to the concrete. I really want it to look adhered to the form:

Used garden tape to lock it in against the form:



There we go:

As you can see, I chose to keep those larger roots and wired them around the base. Not sure if they’ll stay.

 

[John P.]

Planted up deep that same day, August 13, 2022:

A few days later:


I knew I’d have to force the trunk against the top to get the look I was going for, so for a few days I would bend it a bit to make it more pliable:

Then finally on August 25, 2022, I gave it some external motivation:

Voila (September 6, 2022):

 

[John P.]

Even though I’m in coastal Southern California, it gets cool enough during winter to slow these ficus down quite a bit. Fast forward to April 2023. I decided to use zip ties and rubber weatherstripping to put more pressure on the top of the tree:



And now we come to this week in October 2023. I haven’t pruned leaves or branches at all—just let it be:



I had pruned long roots coming from the drainage holes a few weeks ago. The roots are even running on the top of the soil as you can see here:


I’ll probably do nothing until closer to Spring or Summer 2024, at which point I’ll lift it out and work the roots. I have some ideas that should give me a pretty impressive nebari on this guy.

 

[Michael P]

Bonsai of the Anthropocene, looking forward to seeing it after spring 2024 work.