A Green Island Ficus styling...a photo essay

taipan(deceased)

lmao, My avatar(left<) GI Ficus bonsai is 83 kilos dry....that's just under 183 lbs!

You don't want to water it before moving that's for sure!

Tai

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rockm

Taipan,

I have a couple of trees that top 100 lbs. One that's over 150. I have to move the biggest to a bonsai nursery 60 miles from me every fall. Getting the thing into the truck for the trip down there has become an annual "laugh at dad" event for my son--His mother has to cover his ears so he can't hear daddy cussing He's too small to help lift it now, but in a couple of years he will be drafted into the tree moving service

Dale Cochoy

Here are some front and back pictures of the completed wired and styled Green Island Ficus that I started at a local club meeting.
I worked on wiring/styling for two days on/off between rains.

the finished tree now measures 29" ( 73.66cm) high including the pot,
36" ( 91.44cm) across
and 31" ( 78.74cm) deep.

The foliage is about 20% roughly of the starting foliage.
It is ready to start filling in now after styling. The one part that is going to take some time is the top. You'll note a stub sticking up with only one small twig on it coming towards the front. While preliminarily styling the tree at the local meeting I thought I MIGHT use the other side as the front, one reason was that at the top I had a nice branch with three branchlets coming out towards the front, but, as I worked on it I decided the trunk looked better from the other side ( now the front) plus the now-back side had a heavy branch MUCH BETTER suited for a rear branch as it came directly out and was the only real good branch on that side. The side I decided on for the front was much nicer and open, but, there was NO WAY to wire or rafia and wire that 90 degree pointing rear branch into a decent top without either killing it for sure, or, at best, having an ugly bowed branch showing on top. So, I opted for the stub w/ one small branch to build my top from. I don't think it will take long this summer as it is already popping buds all over the tree.
The stub left from cutting off the long huge aeriel root was reduced and carved and sealed and will shortly be completely hidden with foliage.

This tree will be grown in NE Ohio zone 5 and overwintered inside.

I hope you enjoyed,
Dale

Attached Images

	gi ficus finished frnt.jpg (71.7 KB, 55 views)
	gi ficus finished back..jpg (65.6 KB, 55 views)

__________________
________________________________
If you want to be Different....
You have to DO something Different!
__________________________________________

Some people NEVER take the time to do a job right the first time....
but, they always seem to make the time to do it over again...
____________________________________________
Dale Cochoy
Wild Things Bonsai Studio
Yakimono no Kokoro Bonsai Pottery
Hartville, Ohio

David Yedwab

Dale - a cool moose -- actually that's the feel I get from looking at it. Good job. Did you defoliate your umbrella this summer? Just did mine. Maybe we can find the link to the shots we posted last year as a bit more education?

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David Yedwab

agraham

O.K. Dale,

You have explained why you chose the front that you did.And, the tree is excellent material,and you've done a great first styling.

But,I have a comment and a question.

Using the front that you have chosen,the tree seems(to me)to flow to the right.....but the apex veers off to the left.Are you going to use that new apex and take it back to the right a little?....or make it a more rounded tree?


andy

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Dale Cochoy

Andy,
This is a FIRST styling and you are looking at a tree with ABOUT 20% of it's original foliage and branches. I gotta stop somewhere!
Actually, the "Apex" is not leaning to the left. The apex is that short stub you see sticking up from the top with a small branch on it. THAT will become the apex. The part you are calling the apex is a few branches which I've wired and moved to hide the large cut where I removed the LARGE overgrown aerial root that dropped to the ground and became bigger than any of the single trunks. This cut was tapered then hidden, and, as foliage/twigging builds it will be completely hidden from all sides. You can see this original cut pretty good in the earlier demo pics. It was pretty hard to disquise. As with hindsight as usually, I could kick my butt for not taking a pic BEFORE I cut off that root or after it was cut and holding it.
Eventually, after my "stub" fills out more this tree will have a typical tropical rounded dome, sorta "chocolate covered cherry"- shape.
Something you, and others, need to keep in mind here is that this tree has about a 5 1/2 month growing season here. We can't do zone 8-10 stuff in zone 5 too quickly.!
But then again, you can't do zone 5 stuff at all! Dale

__________________
________________________________
If you want to be Different....
You have to DO something Different!
__________________________________________

Some people NEVER take the time to do a job right the first time....
but, they always seem to make the time to do it over again...
____________________________________________
Dale Cochoy
Wild Things Bonsai Studio
Yakimono no Kokoro Bonsai Pottery
Hartville, Ohio

agraham

Believe me Dale....i always keep that in mind~L~....I just asked because i was curious about which direction(figuartively and literally) you were visualising taking this tree.

Great job,great tree.If I lived up there I don't know that I'd have the patience and energy to do tropicals.Lugging them in and out and all.My hat's off to you.

andy

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mordachai

Dale- some great photo write ups, this and the bougi!


all this talk about overwintering tropicals sure makes me glad I'm in S. FL.
Otherwise, there's no way I'd be trying my hand at large 'royal bonsai' sized trees! They just sit out all year, only a true hard frost would do them in!
But on the flip side of that, It's really hard to grow evergreens(pines, junipers, etc) because of the rainfalls, and can't grow many decidous trees- there's simply not enough of a winter break, so no apple, or plum or etc for me!

sorry, didn't mean to ramble

back on topic please...

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just a chop chop here, a chop chop there...

Dale Cochoy

Ha!
Andy, there really isn't all THAT MUCH hefting and moving.
Heres my usual story:
In about 3rd week of december when evenings are starting to cool, I move ALL my tropicals off the benches into my unheated and empty ( as of yet) greenhouse. I don't put hardy stuff in there until about Thanksgiving. Once I get tropicals in there I can spray them with insecticide all together. I do this twice before they go inside. This helps cut down on scale in late winter.
The good thing about going into the greenhouse is that I can keep the temp up pretty good in there and "Cheat" the season by 2-3 weeks, plus, they are all in one spot!
Usually after first week in October I get them all moved into the house in one or two days. BTW, I tell folks up here that they will have better luck with "leaf drop" problems if they move them into the house BEFORE they start heating the house up here.
Then they stay in lite racks or windows until spring. By lite racks I mean...No moving track Metal Halides, no specially built rooms , no WINDOW rooms, just regular fluorescent lites ( not grow-lites) and windows. I wish I could afford a "Tropical Room". It's funny but I've found MY tropicals do better in an AVERAGE window than they do under lite racks. The funny thing is that I have NO South or East windows I can put trees in, they are all North and West, the worst, but yet they do better than those underlites. I'm always amazed!
Towards spring they are all usually CRYING to get out and the Nerifolias almost always are sporting scale or mite webs although I spot spray during the winter. In the case we get a few nice days during the winter, I'll take nerifolias outside, spray, let sit a few hours then really hose hard and bring back in.
When weather starts to get nice my tropical practices are a bit different than I tell people to do. I tell folks with a few tropicals to do the old "tropical two-step" and slowly move into sun. But with the amount/size I have I can't do that. I wait until days/nites are pretty good and they all go out at once! They are ON THEIR OWN! USUALLY I have few probs with frost or sunburn since I wait longer than most folks to take them all out at once, but THIS YEAR, I REALLY got nailed with our strange weather this year. I got both sunburned and frosted! I had some scrappy looking nerifolias and bougies for a while!
I always have to just shake my head at my wife when each spring I spend a couple weeks getting tropicals out and then hardy plants out of the cold greenhouse and it will have frost forcast for a night, and she'll say "Do you want to bring some trees in?"
Soooo...as far as hefting and moving, it's usually on/off for a week in fall and on/off for a few days in spring.
Dale

__________________
________________________________
If you want to be Different....
You have to DO something Different!
__________________________________________

Some people NEVER take the time to do a job right the first time....
but, they always seem to make the time to do it over again...
____________________________________________
Dale Cochoy
Wild Things Bonsai Studio
Yakimono no Kokoro Bonsai Pottery
Hartville, Ohio