Lorax7 Ficus Benjamina ‘Natasja’ #1 progression

[Lorax7]

This was originally a Home Depot plant consisting of several saplings tied together. I separated them and repotted when I got it home and have been growing separately. Have done some pruning and wiring before but neglected to take pictures. Recently repotted some of those trees and brought them back together. Wrapped up the two trunks in some rubber gasket material and wrapped aluminum wire around the outside to hold it together. Put bonsai mix in the middle between the trunks. I’m aiming to keep that area moist to try to get some funky aerial roots going on there. Will gradually unwrap it a section at a time later on to expose the roots.

 

[Lorax7]

Rewrapped the trunk, this time with sphagnum moss, sometime this winter. Also did a bit of a trim. Here it is in spring 2022.

 

[Lorax7]

I combined this with Ficus benjamina ‘Natasja’ #2 earlier this summer (forgot to take a picture at the time of the repotting). Here’s what the combined clump looks like now:





Any thoughts on where to go with it next?

 

[MrFancyPlants]

It looks good and healthy. I would be tempted to get a strong trimming and cut-back in now, so that it has some time to recover before transitioning to the indoor season. I think I like the design too, it is just a little hard to see what is going on with the strong growth.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

It reminds me of a willow leaf that I got off of Craigslist in that I did a pretty big redesign of. I have found it has taken some time to balance the thickness of the branches. I.e. one of the branches is thicker than the primary trunk. Just to keep in mind when you cut it back (doesn’t have to be now), to cut the too thick branches back more, and leave branches you want to thicken alone.. or get some sacrifices going on them.

 

[Lorax7]

I ended up going ahead with chopping it today.

 

[luvinthemountains]

Great improvement! I am a big fan of chopping benjamina back, they respond so well.

 

[Lorax7]

Defoliated it today:

I’m thinking this will be the new front after the next time I repot it.

 

[Lorax7]

Wired it this spring, but didn’t take pictures at the time. I expect the wire will be ready to come off by mid summer.

 

[Lorax7]

Some of the wire is already starting to dig in. Lots of new growth since it was pruned and wired.

 

[Lorax7]

Repotted it. One of the trunks was not yet fused with the rest of the clump, so I wrapped some ugly but functional wire around to hold it in place until its roots get reestablished well enough to hold it in place on their own.

 

[Lorax7]

Repotted it and gave it a bit of a trim. Added a few rooted cuttings at the base to continue filling out the clump. Removed the dead branch that was at the bottom right in the front.

Before:





After:

 

[Lorax7]

Trimmed it back again to open up the canopy and let light in to give the lowest branches a boost

Before:





After:

 

[Dabbler]

looks like off to a good start - only thing I would do is plant them in something a bit large to let the roots grow more to help with fusing the trunks

 

[Lorax7]

looks like off to a good start - only thing I would do is plant them in something a bit large to let the roots grow more to help with fusing the trunks

That’s not really feasible due to lack of room in my overwintering space indoors. Fortunately, it’s not really necessary. At the last repotting, everything was already fused at root level, except for the one dead branch that I removed. So, now, the only parts not fused are the rooted cuttings that I added during the last repot. The best thing I can do for them is give ’em light so they can grow out laterally far enough to not be shaded out by the canopy. That was half the motivation for trimming the top now. The other half was to stimulate back budding so I have something to cut back to at the next pruning session (since it’s a Benjamina and, thus, I don’t dare cut the branches back so hard as to not leave any foliage). Ultimately, I’m aiming for a significantly shorter tree. I actually think planting in a larger container would be counterproductive anyway, as controlling that top growth is a priority until those low branches extend enough to avoid the shade.