Ficus Fracas

steez

If you've ever been fortunate enough to see it, you would be amazed

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Steve

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Frogboy

You're not being thorny. You've decided to back up point # 2. We're waiting for someone to back up point # 1. I sit in the middle of these two statements.

I don't think there is any specific reason why Ficus need to be styled like Ficus, but to my eye they do look much more natural when they look like their big brothers, which is my preference in any tree.

My Ficus trees will probably always be styled to look like large, clumpy, banyan trees, but that's just personal preference.

Frog

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Carl_Bergstrom

It's abundantly clear from the pictures posted here, from Jerry's work, and from a variety of other sources that ficus bonsai can be artistically successful when styled according to the natural growth habit of the genus.

But do they have to be styled this way? I'd argue that they don't, so long as the artist manages to create an artistically successful image. As I said in another thread,


Arguing that elms should only be styled so as to evoke the form of wild elms is like arguing that artists who sketch with charcoal should only draw the insides of coal mines!


In other words, the species is the artistic medium. If one can fashion an artistically effective literati, formal upright, windswept, whatever, using ficus, more power to them.

I don't know ficus well enough to know just how hard that would be. You can sculpt beautiful human forms out of bronze or out of marble even though flesh-and-blood human beings are in reality made of neither.

On the other hand, not every medium lends itself to artistic success - take butter for example.

Best regards,
Carl

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HB Smith

I would lean heavily toward idea number one. It is good to know how the species grows in nature to give you an idea of its native habit and predict how it will respond to container growing. However if you have that one in a hundred specimen that doesn't want to fit in with the rest of its kind, you may have to go with a different styling; don't 'mess it up' by forcing it into the traditional ficus look. I have seen excellent examples of informal upright and cascade ficus bonsai in shows.

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Howard

www.BonsaiSmiths.net

saint

I'm sorry, all these pictures prove is that on level ground ficuses (or fici ) when not exposed to fairly constant wind will grow into a low umbrella shape and tend to spread by growth of banyan roots.

What about ficuses on hillsides or cliffs or growing in windier areas? To say that ficuses (i) have to be a banyan style is like saying pines "have" to be a formal upright

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Leslie St. John
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Remember: Opinions are like bellybuttons, everyone's got one

Frogboy

Well, generally speaking, ficus don't grow in the types of areas you mentioned, as those areas usually have severe drainage and wind problems, which cause the trees that live there to dry out quickly unless they absolutely hoard water. That is why conifers have developed the scaly, waxy foliage that is characteristic to those plants. It is an evolutionary device to save water. Ficus have no such device, so are not generally found growing as cascade or windswept styles in nature. That is why it takes so much talent to style them that way. We have no natural reference point.

I'm sure Jerry will correct me here, but I did say generally, so go easy.

Frog

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Aaron_K

I was thinking the same thing you were Froggy.

Ficus are more a tropical species of tree, on the whole prefering warm, humid conditions and is why many varieties can be kept as an indoor plants.

Mountain sides, cliffs and steep hills (locations you'd would expect to find cascade or windswept examples), lend themselves to extreme weather conditions - Full unrelenting sunlight, drying and cold winds, and not much in the way of water retaining matter for the roots to grow into. That coupled with the tree's inability to handle those climatic conditions, it is fairly unlikely you will see one in the wild.

rockm

Using a species only "as it grows in the wild" is an extremely limiting thought. Having knowledge of how a particular species grows in the wild is nice, but can also set a predetermined image in your head of what your bonsai should look like. That's not really a good thing.

What if someone who simply wants an indoor forest of trees assmbles a group of ficus to depict a temperate forest near his or her home in more Northern latitudes? Ficus is a perfect choice for that kind of thing. What if the person who owns a ficus bonsai has never seen one in the wild? How valid would their interpretation be?

Strictly adhering to a species "natural" tendency can also lead to silly bonsai, especially if someon has no first hand experience of the species in its natural setting. For example, take a look at some of European attempts to create "bayou" images with bald cypress. Most Europeans have never been in an American swamp. Their attempts, most often fall flat. The "flat top" bald cypress style mystifies --and even repels--some on the other side of the pond. Same's true of the arial root styled ficus for some North Americans.

I think emulating the "indigenous" style of a particular species is an admirable goal, but should be far from the top of someone's list of important considerations in making styling choices for a particular tree. Individual trees, the environment in which they're going to be kept would seem to be two things that are much more important than trying to force a "native" style on a given piece of stock.

Bone-sigh

I live in Florida, and on the coast I have seen windswept ficus, and I have also seen cascading ficus.
Now, granted the ficus that are cascading aren't off cliffs or mountains, but they are much more interesting than that. Many times you will see a ficus that took root in the crevis of a wall, or another tree even, and is forced to cascade out to reach the light.
I wish I had pictures but I'm techno-dummy. Couldn't load'em if I had'em.
It is my experience that ficus can take many fascinating shapes and should not be restricted to the classic broad dome shape.

With first hand account,
Ryan

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