SU2
Omono
Wanna tag @sorce just to help bring out-of-box-ness to this right from the start ;D
So I fell for Ficus M's like a year ago, when my ~1yr old mallsai (was a gift) was nearly finished closing a chop-wound (and is now growing well but beyond my talent for controlling/styling
)
So, I would root my cuttings when I pruned....being that I'm in FL, pruning ficus M's in spring/summer, they almost-all survive. In '19, some were given to a friend, who left them untended. I just retook possession of several:
I guess maybe I'd be interested in taking 1 to wire-hard from the start, and try "from the ground-up" ficus-M development...but, for the remainder, I really want to merge/fuse/put them together, probably not clump/forest style (although fused banyan is wayyyy up my alley!)
The root masses I'm working with are utter garbage since they grew as freely as the Ficus M's did, the tallest one was nearly 6' from the ground...they displayed far more 'tap-rooting' and less under-trunk-rooting than I'd expected/hoped.
sharp bend of a primary root on one of the larger pieces:
roots on the two "halves" of the 3-tree-clump that I split-up too roughly (didn't realize there were joined roots lol!)
1:
2
other portion of the "Larger Ones'" clump:
Now they're all rinsed, bagged w/ some moss hanging-around for good measure, wrapped that with shadecloth because it'll be a cold one tonight... heh can't resist showing the lil guy these all came from:
ANYWAYS.....because I propagated sooo many, I have far too many root-over-rock, fused-groupings, fused-groupings over rocks, etc etc..... I wanna do something gnarly here....wanna get out the raffia, the 10g (copper) and guy wiring and masks and make something insane....what options / fun can anyone suggest with these? Part of me thought to "twist/tangle" the larger ones, aiming for fusion/banyan-clumping (by taking advantage of how easily you can do the 'twisted trunk' topiary style with these types of ficus, only of course wouldn't be done as some smooth cylindrical twirl ), have to imagine fusion is the best approach, maybe it'd make more sense to mangle them into really good fusion-positions now, leave their lengths & roots intact, and force growth in 2021 strictly to fuse the trunkings? 3 large ones form the 'center mass' with the couple smaller ones 'forced in' where appropriate, aesthetically. I should be clear I know it'll take years to fuse & finish properly, though I am in FL and that pic of that mother ficus.M was about that far at ~1yr of receipt as a 1/2" thick, just-chopped stick that had 4 or 5 few-mm-thin branches, was something that'd be prepped for mallsai (neighbor works at florist, their wholesaler had it for $2 and since she saw the word 'bonsai' she bought it for me, was blown away at how great a plant it is & at how it proved the most-resilient specie I own, the only one I wouldn't hesitate to do hard-work on during the middle of winter or middle of summer or multiple times in a year, have never seen one 'slow down' (ficus B's, on the other hand... although I've been having a good time with "ficus b 'too little'" cultivar lately, the leaves are a small fraction of a Micro's and internode length even smaller fraction, backbudding is closer to benji's than micro's but still do backbud well enough for use am still confused why it's not a bonsai favorite, only flaw is that subtler green seen on Benji's :/ Still love my benji's
So I fell for Ficus M's like a year ago, when my ~1yr old mallsai (was a gift) was nearly finished closing a chop-wound (and is now growing well but beyond my talent for controlling/styling
)So, I would root my cuttings when I pruned....being that I'm in FL, pruning ficus M's in spring/summer, they almost-all survive. In '19, some were given to a friend, who left them untended. I just retook possession of several:
I guess maybe I'd be interested in taking 1 to wire-hard from the start, and try "from the ground-up" ficus-M development...but, for the remainder, I really want to merge/fuse/put them together, probably not clump/forest style (although fused banyan is wayyyy up my alley!)
The root masses I'm working with are utter garbage since they grew as freely as the Ficus M's did, the tallest one was nearly 6' from the ground...they displayed far more 'tap-rooting' and less under-trunk-rooting than I'd expected/hoped.
sharp bend of a primary root on one of the larger pieces:
roots on the two "halves" of the 3-tree-clump that I split-up too roughly (didn't realize there were joined roots lol!)
1:
2
other portion of the "Larger Ones'" clump:
Now they're all rinsed, bagged w/ some moss hanging-around for good measure, wrapped that with shadecloth because it'll be a cold one tonight... heh can't resist showing the lil guy these all came from:
ANYWAYS.....because I propagated sooo many, I have far too many root-over-rock, fused-groupings, fused-groupings over rocks, etc etc..... I wanna do something gnarly here....wanna get out the raffia, the 10g (copper) and guy wiring and masks and make something insane....what options / fun can anyone suggest with these? Part of me thought to "twist/tangle" the larger ones, aiming for fusion/banyan-clumping (by taking advantage of how easily you can do the 'twisted trunk' topiary style with these types of ficus, only of course wouldn't be done as some smooth cylindrical twirl
), have to imagine fusion is the best approach, maybe it'd make more sense to mangle them into really good fusion-positions now, leave their lengths & roots intact, and force growth in 2021 strictly to fuse the trunkings? 3 large ones form the 'center mass' with the couple smaller ones 'forced in' where appropriate, aesthetically. I should be clear I know it'll take years to fuse & finish properly, though I am in FL and that pic of that mother ficus.M was about that far at ~1yr of receipt as a 1/2" thick, just-chopped stick that had 4 or 5 few-mm-thin branches, was something that'd be prepped for mallsai (neighbor works at florist, their wholesaler had it for $2 and since she saw the word 'bonsai' she bought it for me, was blown away at how great a plant it is & at how it proved the most-resilient specie I own, the only one I wouldn't hesitate to do hard-work on during the middle of winter or middle of summer or multiple times in a year, have never seen one 'slow down' (ficus B's, on the other hand... although I've been having a good time with "ficus b 'too little'" cultivar lately, the leaves are a small fraction of a Micro's and internode length even smaller fraction, backbudding is closer to benji's than micro's but still do backbud well enough for use am still confused why it's not a bonsai favorite, only flaw is that subtler green seen on Benji's :/ Still love my benji's 
Yes!
