Ficus Benjamini first styling

weeijk

Hi All,

Facts: Ficus Benjamini, 60cm high, age unknown, style: formal upright, two trees in one pot, gardencentre plant.
I bought this Ficus for my first bonsaitraining, to do some prunning and wiring.
The first photo is of the starter plant. After 6 hours the second photo shows the first styling result. This was done with my teatcher, I must say didnt agree with him all the way. After I placed this photo on several bonsai forums, got so much replys that it didnt look like a Ficus anymore, so I changed it completely.
The third photo is how it lookes like now, which is in my opinion much better. This was also my first styling idea. The pot is a trainingspot and will obviously be changed next spring at repotting.

How do you all feel about this tree, and what can be the future for it

Thanks in advance for your replys,

Wessel

Attached Images

	ficus_16-11-2004.jpg (71.4 KB, 227 views)
	ficus_30-11-2004_A.jpg (71.4 KB, 300 views)
	ficus_14-12-2004.jpg (67.6 KB, 327 views)

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clrosner

Hi Wessel:
Not that my opinion is backed up with a lot of experience, but my first impression of your styling would be my choice over your teacher.

If these were my trees, in the spring I would air layer the trunks about a 1/3 from the lowest branch and work toward a more compact tree.

Good luck

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mikec

Hey Wessel-

Unless you are going for the whole two trunk thing, I would try to fuse the trunks together to make one thicker trunk. Just an idea.

-Mike

Carl_Bergstrom

My impression is that if you don't trust and respect your teacher enough to go with his or her stylings (rightly or wrongly), you need to find yourself a new teacher. You won't learn much from a teacher that you are constantly second-guessing.

Carl

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Will_Heath

I'm not exactly sure what your teacher was trying to express here and without that knowledge, I can only go by what I see in the photos that you have posted.

Twin trunks happen quite often in nature, most times one of the trunks is dominate which means that it has grown taller, taking the majority of the sun. The second trunk in order to survive has to lean out from the main trunk to get sun. Branches growing in wards toward the other trunk soon die because of lack of sun.

As you can see, the sun has a great effect on how they grow as with all trees. The cascade reaches out from the cliff face or toward sunlight reflecting off the surface of water. The trees on the edge of a group lean outward toward the sun. If you look down on a deciduous tree you will see that the leaves make up almost a solid surface, fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle, any that do not fit soon die.

Tropicals like yours grow nice rounded canopies. If this were mine, I would shorten the trunk that has all those curves and go with two canopies, one high, one lower. I would introduce more movement lower on the main trunk and shorten that also to bring it more in line with the trunk thickness and have the second trunk on the left leaning out from the taller. I would stay away from the pine shape, this is not for tropicals, in my opinion.

Good Luck,

Will

PastorJeff

Wessel,

You are getting some great advice here on this thread. And I have to say that I agree with all of it.

I would take some light gauge wire and really open up the foliage. Get it to really spread out to get a nice full top.

But I really have to agree that if you are having problems following your instructor, that you may want to get another instructor. Nothing against him, you just may be able to find a better fit with someone else.

Did your instructor draw up any thoughts of where he was going with the styling he did? Just curious...

Jeffrey

weeijk

For all discussing my teacher, I have no problem with him, I only disagreed on this styling of the Ficus. My odea was about the one I formed now. My teacher loves to make a lot of bends, which is good, when you want to give the tree more dept.
Sometimes he just overdo his bending.

Because the tree was bended at first, I lost a lot of bottum branches, so maybe I have to airlayer it. Further I agree that I have to make a father/son or mother/daughter from the two trees.

To answer the Pastor's question, no I did the drawing, he didnt agree, so I let him give it a go. With my other tree, the Pinus, he did a good job, at least thats how I feel about the restyling.

Thanks for all the advice sofar, feel free to comment more.

Wessel

Carl_Bergstrom

Then you do have a problem with him.

If already think you know better than your teacher, you either need to get yourself a new attitude, or a new teacher.

Styling a tree with your teacher, undoing the teacher's work, and then posting "do you like my teacher's version or mine better?" to the internet is a waste of your teacher's time, a waste of your time, and disrespectful all around.

-Carl

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weeijk

Sorry Carl,

Probably my translation in English has been a little wrong, me and my teatcher can perfectly go true 1 door. Why cant I disagree with him? I'm learning a lot of this tread, comparing my teatcher and myself.

This whole discussion about me and my teacher is beside the initial question.
Lets stick to that, how about this Ficus?

regards and thx for yr insides,

Wessel