The Art of Bonsai

Tag: ficus

  • Identifying a Ficus by using the leaves

    Fig leaves are very variable from species to species. This is helpful in trying to identify a fig as belonging to a certain species. The problem is that the leaves on even a single plant can show great variation depending upon cultural conditions of light, moisture, growth in a container, wind, etc. As an example…

  • Fusing Ficus

    One of my favorite techniques to obtain larger material is to fuse young rooted cutting together. I use cuttings all taken from the same mother plant so that the bark, leaves and general character of the fused plant will be completely the same. In this way I can develop larager plants since my growing space…

  • 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…

  • Beefing up a branch

    If a bonsai needs to have a heavier branch than it must be allowed to grow faster than the other branches. Thickening will occur in direct proportion to the number of leaves photosynthesizing on the branch. Keep more leaves to produce more energy and more growth to thicken the branch. After the branch has enough thickness…

  • Growing figs from seed

    One of the ways that I obtain material that is not commercially available is to find seed of rare species. Growing from seed is not the fastest or easiest way to obtain bonsai but it does allow one to exert complete control over the development of a bonsai. While there are many ways to sprout…

  • How to thicken a branch

    Often a branch on a bonsai is too thin. To thicken it allow it to grow wildly without trimming it back. Keep the rest of the tree trimmed as normal. Once the branch is of the proper thickness it can be shortened back and proper taper and ramification can be developed. z The definitive reference…

  • Ficus virens Lipstick Ficus, White Fig

    Ficus virens has many common names;  Lipstick Ficus in India and White Fig in Australia. Whatever it is called it is a huge tree growing in its native environment. It can stand alone as a single trunk tree or exist as a strangler fig with many aerials. The most famous trees of this species are…

  • Fusing figs

    One way to get larger bonsai material is to fuse smaller figs together. Basically tieing together several figs that are genetically identical can produce larger trunks. Growing a tree in a larger container or in the ground will produce faster trunk growth but is often not suitable for indoor growers. Fusion is a useful technique…