The Art of Bonsai

Category: Ficus microcarpa

  • Creating a heavier branch

    Sometimes it is desirable to have a heavier branch and the material is grown in a container, indoors or is just a slow growing variety. In this case the material is Ficus microcarpa ‘Melon Seed’. This is a slow growing, miniature leaf form of microcarpa. In order to develop it as a bonsai I have…

  • Seed grown Ficus microcarpa, Clump style

    I collected and sprouted a seed about 13 years ago that resulted in a plant that had low branches which I decided to keep as secondary trunks. The bonsai is what I would call Clump or Sprout style and is not that common in the bonsai world. It may be close to needing a nice container…

  • Grafting figs

    Grafting is a very useful way to improve a fig. It can add branches, new roots or thicken trunks. One factor to keep in mind is to graft identical parts together. Simply use material to graft, the scion, and the stock that are genetically identical. If this is not done the bark and foliage will…

  • Ficus cuttings, a great way to get more trees

    Over the years I have taken many hundreds of cuttings. Most Ficus can be started easily from cuttings and even large size cuttings can be rooted with success. This is a Ficus microcarpa cutting taken from one of my very large bonsai. It was allowed to grow without trimming to recover strength and over time branches were…

  • Trimmed back

    This tree is a Ficus microcarpa that has been growing wildly for some months to gather strength and to build up the right lowest branch. Now it is time to get it trimmed back and looking pretty. Bonsai need periodic wild growth to gather energy and to re-balance parts of the tree that might need…

  • Ficus microcarpa in the Denver Botanic Garden

    I was gifted this Ficus microcarpa from my good friend David Fukumoto in 2004. It was just accepted into the bonsai collection of the Denver Botanic Garden this July of 2015. I am greatly honored to have one of my best trees find a wonderful home for the next phase of its life. A place…

  • The evolution of a large Ficus microcarpa – Part Two

    The first 5 years of progress with a Ficus microcarpa, Chinese Banyan, was outlined in a previous blog see https://suspicious-pike.51-195-201-14.plesk.page/?s=part+l This  is an update on how this fig has progresse as of April, 2015. It still has some years of refinement to undergo before it can claim its position as a mature bonsai. Two procedures were…