Variegated Ficus

richoricho

Hello all!

I am very new to bonsai and need some serious advice.

I bought this variegated ficus at a nursery and am wanting to bonsaify it. I was very impressed with the nebari.

Can anyone give me any suggestions?

At the moment it is 17" tall and I was wanting it to be much smaller so that the trunk looks thicker. But I don't know how to develop the branches further down the trunk.

Thanks for any help!

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JoshMoRenaud

First things first, you need to repot it into a much wider pot.

Secondly, you could cut the tree all the way down to that first branch and it would survive. As long as the Benjamina has some foliage on it after you chop it, it should be okay. Whether or not that is the best option for restyling this tree, though, is beyond me. I think I would chop a bit further up and let the tree grow in a much bigger pot for a couple years, tying the branches down when they get a bit longer to aim for a naturalistic banyan look. That's just my newbie opinion though!

richoricho

Thanks for your suggestion Josh!

I was thinking that the best place to make the trunk chop would be just above the fourth branch as shown in red on the photo.
From this the fourth branch ( marked 'A' ) could be moved up to form the leader. Hopefully after a while a branch will grow at 'B' where one was lost.

But as i'm very new to this, I have no idea on how to do it!

Can anyone tell me how to make that chop?? and how do i get that branch up to become the leader.
Will I need to apply anything to the cut??

Thanks again for any help!

richoricho

Oh yeah, not sure when the best time to do this it?? I live in Australia and we're just heading into Fall