Summer Ficus Work

Tags

Bonsai, defoliation, experiment, ficus, pruning, vigor

As I have worked on my ficus bonsai this summer, I have been considering a question. Who do we learn from? For a number of years I felt pretty good about learning about how to care for tropicals from folks who have lots of experience, but those experienced folks I’ve been learning from are bonsai practitioners who live in subtropical areas like Florida.

Ficus microcarpa before work, summer 2021

The approach I have been following for a number of years has been to do heavy work on ficus mid-summer including defoliating for easy wiring and styling, and I repot then as well when necessary.

I really started questioning these practices when I listened to a recent podcast from Bonsai Mirai. The Asymmetry interview with David Cutchin addressed how some of the habits of Florida bonsai practitioners may not be such a great thing for their trees even in Florida where tropical species are suited to the climate. Specifically, the regular practice of defoliating was called out.

Extra problematic, then, is those of us who live in more Northerly locations learning from and copying those practices that seem to work well in Florida.

Ficus microcarpa after defoliation, summer 2021

I am in Northern Virginia, and for my tropical trees mid-summer is when they have just started to show renewed vigor after recovering from six months inside. Cutchin suggests that regular defoliation is really hard on the continuing vigor of the trees. If that’s true in Florida, the lost vigor is especially worrisome to me when the trees can only enjoy being outside half the year and struggle to maintain vigor anyway.

The range of leaf sizes removed from the tree when defoliating.

Nevertheless, I wonder if and suspect that applying this technique might help to balance energy in the tree. The image above shows the significant range of leaf size that was cut from the tree during its recent defoliation. These range from a half inch to three inches. But if I suspect encouraging a full set of new leaves might help to balance the growth of the tree might some pruning or just a partial defoliation possibly do the same?

Just a bit of wire and pruned, after work summer 2021

One way or another, it’s a bit late for this specimen, but I decided to try different approaches with some of my other tropicals. A couple trees that have been defoliated annually for the last few years have just been pruned without defoliation this year to see if it makes a difference in the vigor and growth of the trees. The experiment is not very scientific since tree growth varies from year to year, but if all I am doing by defoliating is slowing down the growth and development of my bonsai, I am all for trying something different.

Ficus microcarpa two weeks after defoliation.

In the meantime I will enjoy watching this tree fill back in with a brand new set of leaves.

The tree made me do it.

Tags

cutting, experiment, ficus, fig, leaf, propagation

I’ve joked for years that I’m trying to quit tropicals. I only have a handful – 7 or 8 trees. I don’t have any more window space to keep more in the winter, and I refuse to invest in grow lights when there are temperate species perfectly happy to spend the winter outside.

Then something like this happens!

An Actual Bonsai Show

Tags

Bonsai, boxwood, buxus, ficus, shohin, show

I wasn’t sure that it was going to happen, but Northern Virginia Bonsai Society decided to hold an actual, physical (not virtual) bonsai show in September of 2020. So many events have been cancelled, but this was a small show setup in the visitor center of a park that was already open and enforcing masks and social distancing inside the building. All we did is add a few trees.

Meet Fred

Tags

Bonsai, defoliate, ficus, prune, repot, summer work

Do you name your bonsai? I don’t necessarily “give my trees names” as such. In my notes I often give descriptive names to individual specimens especially when I have multiple trees of the same species, but those are usually names like “concord” for a tree I found on Concord Drive, or “monster” for that particularly large tree. The closest thing I come to giving a proper name is when I refer to a tree by the person I got it from, such as “Acer palmatum, Sandi” for the Japanese maple that I got from Sandi’s collection.

But this is Fred…

It’s how you look at it.

Tags

Bonsai, defoliate, ficus, July, pot, style, wire

Bonsai is an art form. The most effective bonsai artists employ the skills of artists who work in other media (our medium just happens to be living plants.) Among these skills is looking — I mean REALLY looking.

Ficus microcarpa, July 2020, before work

Braving the Heat

Tags

Bonsai, defoliation, ficus, repot, shohin, style, summer work, wire

I am finally starting the work that needs done on my few tropical bonsai. These poor, abused plants really struggle with the outdoor/indoor cycle they must endure. In my area (Northern Virginia, USA) I need to keep them inside very nearly half the year to protect them from cold night time temperatures — from sometime in October to sometime in May. They pout and just barely hang onto existence while inside over the winter, and it takes a while, once back outside in the summer, for them to rebuild strength and grow well.

Ficus salicaria in April 2020

Kept for 22 Years, Improved in 3

Tags

Bonsai, club, ficus, join, learning, NVBS, progress

I just got one of those “3 years ago…” memory posts from Facebook that showed the summer work I did on a Ficus benjamina in 2016. It’s the same Benji I shared in this recent post. The difference in just three years is huge! Despite owning this tree for 22 years, this is what it looked like 3 years ago.

F. Benjamina in 2016 after defoliation

Bad Words in Bonsai

Tags

benjamina, Bonsai, defoliate, ficus, guy wires, prune, styling, wiring

I am going to talk about some bad words… the F word and the B word. That’s right my bonsai friends, I want to talk about Ficus benjamina.

Ficus benjamina as displayed, spring 2019

F. Benjamina is a Ficus variety that gets little respect in the bonsai world, and I get why. The leaves are big and the internodes are long. It’s not an easy species, but I’m willing to bet there are a whole lot of enthusiasts who have one. Maybe it was an early purchase before they knew better, a gift from a well- meaning friend, or a survivor from a house plant experiment. Owning one is not a crime, so let me share mine with you.

This Benji has been in my collection since 1997 by my best figurin’. I started in bonsai in 1996, so whatever its origins, I have cared for this tree for far too long to consider discarding it now. (And please don’t judge me for not getting it further along in the twenty plus years since. Remember, I was just wingin’ it for most of that time.)

It wasn’t in horrible shape after the winter months inside, so I decided to show it this spring. At top is how it appeared in the NVBS Spring Show.

Below is how it looked this morning. Getting a bit bushy.

Ficus benjamina before work

It has been enjoying the summer heat and pushing new growth. So, of course, I decided to cut all the leaves off. Well, all but a couple on the end of a branch that needs to thicken up. Leaving those will give that branch a head start on the rest of the tree.

After defoliation, before wiring

As I clipped each leaf, I also removed any growth beyond the first two leaves on new extension growth. With some luck, I will get two new branches on each of these tips (one from the base of each leaf) and continue to improve the ramification.

I am happy to report that this maturing tree in this small pot is maintaining fairly short internodes – relatively speaking. Many of these were just a half inch or so. Not bad for a Benji.

After this pruning, you can see that the shape is still reasonably controlled, but the branches have crept up from where they were last wired. To avoid the potential for wire scarring, I decided to make a tie down ring and use guy wires on most of the major branches. (Note the ring of wire with loops under the lip of the pot, and the rubber tubing wrapped over the tops of several branches.)

After wiring

Some additional wiring was required on some smaller branches, as well, to get everything back in order. I should see new leaves on this tree over the next couple of weeks.

This will never be a world class Ficus bonsai. There are many varieties that do better, but this little Benji has been there through my bonsai journey, and I don’t intend to stop working with it.

If you have a Benji too, I’d love to see it. No judgement here!

The Hottest Day

Tags

benjamina, Bonsai, defoliate, ficus, pot, pots, prune, pruning, repot, styling, wiring

Have you heard the suggestion to “repot your ficus on the hottest day of the year”? Well, it was cooler today than the last few (only the low 90s F), but it was so brutally hot AND HUMID the last few days, I was not about to work in the garden.

Bonsai Best with Others

Tags

Bonsai, ficus, NVBS, rootoverrock, wiring

I confess, at times I am skeptical of the oft repeated notion that “bonsai is an art best undertaken with others.” (Credit Gary Reese for its repetition.) I am usually content to work on my trees in the quiet of my garden, and find the hours spent there to be very therapeutic. Then again, my office mates know full well that I love little more than “talking it out.”