Ginseng Ficus - creating movement and taper

It's still early in the growing season in South Africa so my Ginseng Ficus has hardly changed since it received its last chop in July.

July 2018

Although I said at the time that my next step was repotting and root work, that thick straight leader has been bothering me for a while now, so today I decided to do something about it. Just one chop for now:

September 2018 - after the chop

The new leader is going to need quite a bit of fattening up, but the position is much better.

Now I really am planning to remove the fat horizontal root on the left side:

Offending root to be cut back to the green line

I'm hoping to do that at a workshop in about ten days' time.

This guy may be a Ginseng Ficus, but I'm determined that he'll look like a proper bonsai one day.

You can see photos of the full progression of this tree here.

Ginseng Ficus gets a chop

It's been five years since I started growing out my first Ginseng Ficus.

In November 2017 I felt it had finally fattened up enough to shorten the trunk and start developing branches.

A week ago I decided it was time for the second chop.

July 2018 - before pruning

At the time I bought the tree the graft ensured that there was only one possible front. After five years of healing, however, that was no longer the case. After examining the base of the tree, I realised that there was a better front.

old front

new front

Unfortunately the tree is planted too low in the pot for the photos to show the difference accurately, but the gap between the two trunks is much less obvious from the new front.

July 2018 - after pruning and change of front

Next step is to repot the tree and carve away some of that long root that is just visible on the left side. That will have to wait until spring though.

You can see photos of the full progression of this tree here.

Choosing the Right Ginseng Ficus

Ginseng Ficus have a really bad name in the world of bonsai and let's face it, a lot of them are really ugly, with huge roots growing in bizarre arrangements. Most of them bear no resemblance to any tree I've ever seen in nature. And yet I've always felt a strange attraction to these peculiar little trees with their fat bases. Especially since I visited Adam Lavigne's blog and saw what a little creativity can do with them.

When it comes to buying Ginseng Ficus, however, I'm hard to please. My trees must have well arranged roots, decent taper... and a low price. Trees like that aren't easy to find, and it took me years to find my first one.

Number one as purchased - June 2013

 I really hadn't planned on buying another until I stumbled upon this one in April 2017:

Number two as purchased - April 2017

The base isn't very different to the first one, but I succumbed to temptation based on my desire to learn from the pruning errors I made with number one.

And then a local supermarket started selling them (wrongly labelled!) far cheaper than they're available anywhere else, so in December 2017 temptation struck once more.

Number three as purchased - December 2017

I really like this one with its single "trunk", complete with a little movement. Sure it's got a bit of reverse taper right now, but after removing the unsuitable aerial roots high up, I buried the lower half of the trunk in river sand to encourage the remaining one to fatten up and possibly to develop more in the right area. Hopefully in time that will help to produce proper taper.

Unsuitable aerial roots removed - December 2017

Potted up with river sand where I want aerial roots to develop - December 2017

Once it was settled in its new pot I removed the unwanted branches below the graft and made the first steps to smoothing out the graft site.

Stub at graft site - January 2018

First steps to smoothing out graft site - January 2018

And in February I realised that the left branch was threatening to take over from the apex, so I shortened it.

Left branch taking over - February 2018

At the same time I did a bit of wiring. This photo shows my proposed new potting angle as the tree is currently leaning over backwards.

Balance restored - February 2018

Number two is getting similar treatment.

Meanwhile in November 2017 I decided the trunk of number one had thickened enough for me to shorten it.

Number one after pruning - November 2017

Due to early mistakes I'm not too happy with the overall shape of the trunk, but hopefully with time (and branch development) that will improve. And hopefully I'll do better with number two and three.

Additional photos including future updates will appear here:

• Ginseng Ficus #1
• Ginseng Ficus #2
• Ginseng Ficus #3

Here’s my Ginseng Ficus

I don’t often talk about my Ginseng Ficus because they’re frowned upon by most serious bonsai artists. That was one of the first things I learnt when I joined my bonsai club, but if anything it just made me feel I’d like to challenge myself by seeing what I could do with one.

Once I’d decided to buy one, my goal was to find a tree with roots that weren’t too bizarre. Not an easy mission! I don’t know how many years it took before I found one that I was happy to give a home. It’s not a spectacular tree (yet??) but it has no peculiar bulges, and all-importantly it has taper.

Of course when I bought it, it also had a horrible straight cut with a thin ‘trunk’ grafted on one side – a problem that only time could solve. I wasn’t even prepared to start work tidying up that cut back then because I was afraid that the graft wouldn’t hold.

Here it is as purchased in June 2013 in a tiny plastic container which wasn’t even worthy of being called a pot.

Ginseng Ficus - June 2013

Naturally the first thing I had to do was get it into a proper pot. The pond basket I chose was huge by comparison to its previous home but now I’m starting to think that it’s time to move it to something bigger.

By July 2014 it had grown enough for me to start work on that horrible cut.

July 2014 - before pruning

Realising that too much pruning would stunt its growth, I limited my other work on it to removing one of the two leaders as well as one small branch low down. I also did a bit of wiring.

July 2014 - after pruning and wiring

Looking at the photos now I’m starting to wonder whether I should have kept both leaders, but what’s done is done.

All is not lost however. Today the second leader is a slender twin trunk tree, about 50cm high, which I hope to train into a “proper” bonsai one day. For now, however, it has a lot of fattening up to do. A bigger pot is a must.

Cutting - November 2016

In the two years since I removed the second leader, my Ginseng Ficus has been left to grow as much as it’s able, its growth restricted only by the size of its pot.

November 2016 - before wiring

This week I decided it was time to do a bit more wiring as the branches I’d wired previously were growing upwards once more. While doing so I removed a couple of insignificant branches that were growing in the same space as the ones I’m trying to develop.

November 2016 - after wiring

No other pruning was done as the trunk and branches still need to fatten up significantly. For now I’m just happy that the trunk is starting to blend into the base and the scar where I tidied up that ugly cut is healing nicely.

Scar at graft site - rear view

This tree still has a long way to go before I can even think of calling it bonsai, but I’m happy with the progress I’ve made thus far.

Updated photos appear here.