The Art of Bonsai

Tag: Ficus microcarpa

  • Creating a new branch with fusion

    Creating a new branch with fusion

    In this Ficus microcarpa ‘melon seed’ I needed a left side branch. As you can see in image 1 there is no branch. Fortunately, several small branches sprouted in the right spot and to speed the development of the branch three of the sprouts were tied together with cable ties, image 2. Two of the…

  • Ficus microcarpa development of cuttings

    Here are two Ficus microcarpa bonsai of small size. Both were taken from cuttings from one of my large Ficus. They have always been in small pots so their growth has been slow. They are now more than a dozen years since having been harvested. The mother tree has provided many cuttings over the years.…

  • How to stimulate latent buds in the trunk

  • 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…

  • Multi-trunk fig tree

    An unusual style for fig trees is the multi-trunk style. One way to develop this style is to use a seedling Ficus and allow several trunks to form. Another way is to fuse several trunks together. This is a Ficus microcarpa, about 12 years from seed. It spontaneously had several low branches as a seedling…

  • 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…

  • 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…