Ficus restyle or house plant?

[Shaw81]

I have had this tiger bark ficus for 2 years. The first winter I had it I lost a main branch. I let it grow and now I am confused about what to do with it. And advice would is appreciated. Can I do something with it or is it now just a house plant?

 

[Forsoothe!]

I find it a lot easier to cut all the leaves off so the architecture can be seen. This is a good time to do that. Cut them at the base of the leaf and leave the petiole which guards the bud in the axil. Next, rotate it as many times as it takes to get an idea of what the best feature is. Look at that best feature from many angles and directions to get an idea of how the rest of the tree can support or accentuate the best view. Wire everything. Place branches in positions that are in concert with the movement of the best feature and horizontal/parrallel to the ground, or swooping down to horizontal. For example; the main trunk has a pleasant swoop right-left-right that might look even better if the left trunk made a arc to the right beginning after the ariel root to follow/parallel the upper main trunk's 2nd right. It doesn't have to be a hard right, just different from the existing meander left. The sencondary branches and twigs would complete the movement in the viewer's eye. The 2nd trunk could even arc left to be a counterbalancing downward continuation of the main trunk's upper portion angle. That may be more difficult and would result in the 2nd trunk being quite long because it would have to make a ~60° arc to have the end in approximate parallel with the upper main trunk. Again, the sub-branches and twigs complete the picture that you can't complete with the trunk that is too thick to bend as much as you might like. That would be more dramatic than the other option arc. A lot depends upon what's in them bushes. Remove the leaves and look and see and experiment. Do very little cutting of anything until you are both inspired and have more than 50% of the trunk tipping, bending or guying done. You never know where you need twigs to support the final picture...

You can do things with long, skinny branches that you can't do with stubs, so don't go off half cocked, especially with that super ugly lowest branch which could complete the picture very late in the game by accompanying either trunk-line's direction as a shadowing background. (As pictured it is a superfluous front eyesore; if this is ultimately a rear view, it could be a shadow filling otherwise empty space.)

 

[MrFancyPlants]

How about bonsai and a houseplant? It needs a trim and i’ll probably put it outside for the summer soon. Maybe defoliate?

 

[Shaw81]

Thanks for the responses. It will be going outside once the nights here are steady above 45 f. I will play around with it. Maybe do some heavy pruning. I let it grow for over a year and it got out of control. I did prune back the big branch and its back budding nicely.