Large ficus progression (first post in a while)

[timeleft]

I wrote out the story of how I acquired the tree and the photos show a thorough progression. I initially purchased it from Hollow Creek when they sold off a large part of their tropical collection (maybe 3 years ago?). Its been a work in progress ever since and always a champion putting out insane amounts of growth. Any critique/suggestions are welcome. I have a private day with Peter Tea in September and hopefully we will spend some time on this tree again this year.

First:

A lot of wiring:

Latest:

I can't get the photos to embed from IMGUR but here is a hyperlink of the progression. If anyone can show me how to do that I would appreciate it. The gallery below has a bunch of more pictures.

http://imgur.com/a/IyIAC

Tree is probably ready for defoliation and rewiring. I recently removed some wire that was already biting in.

Thanks for looking!

 

[bonsaidave]

That is a pretty sweet tree. Nice work from first to latest. We expect another update in 3 more years

 

[Starfox]

Yeah that is nice, good trunk, roots and shape. Excellent, thanks for sharing.

 

[Redwood Ryan]

Fantastic work!! Unfortunately I sold my two large Fred trees and have regretted it ever since.

 

[timeleft]

Thank you all for the kind words. Hopefully once I can further develop the top's ramification I will be able to start working toward smaller leaves and everything will look in proportion (maybe repot next year into a shallower pot). I have been letting everything grow wild for now to help perpetuate bud site production further down the branches.

I'll update this thread after I work on the tree with Peter Tea in September.


Here are some other ficus i've been working on and a group shot of one of my benches today in the rain:

 

[Anthony]

@timeleft ,

really beautiful structure. Might I suggest looking at how the Chinese handle this situation
on youtube.

[1] Could I suggest you shift these images to ----- The Ficus Repository --- in --------- New to Bonsai
before they get lost.

How to build on showing off that structure.

[2] Please show what Mr.Tea does with it.

[3] Just a suggestion, maybe a few holes just below the stone level in your bowls so the
trees don't sit in water after rains.
Ficus are not crazy about soaking wet soil.
Thanks again.
Anthony

 

[Anthony]

Please ignore the bold writing, computer glitch.
Apologies.
Anthony

 

[timeleft]

Thank you @Anthony what I usually do is tip the water out of the saucers after the rain and let them sit in it for the day. Something like a tropical rain storm but you are probably right and Ill do that when the rain stops. I will absolutely post up what I do in September. It is a private day so I am hoping to convince my brother to photograph the day and help me with a chronology of the trees that we work on.

I'll take a look at the Ficus repository too. I have quite a few others I can show off as well and some more dramatic projects. I made a 21 tree forest exclusively from the limbs of the giant ficus above came out pretty well.