Ficus Retusa - Shaping help!!!

Hello!

I would love to shape and wire my Ficus Retusa (or benjamina), and I need advice! I feel clueless as to what kind of shape I should give it. There are 3 main branches, and everything is just so straight, so I'm not sure as to how I should prune it. I would imagine I would have to wait to prune it back during late winter or else it would go into a dormant stage again. Or can I do it now?

I am thinking of putting a rock under the roots next winter or should I not?
Should I be cutting off any branches?
Should it be a leaning shape or something else?






Any opinion would be of great help!

Just let it grow much bigger for a few years and see what it does. Put it outside during the summer. Do it gradually to not shock the tree too much (sunlight)

I am also a beginner and almost killed my ficus this year but its recovering now (took 2-3 weeks).

Consider this your practice / sacrifice tree.

Thanks Epicus!

I just read up on that and am trying to do that now. I was scolded by some other person on another forum that it should be in direct light no matter what. But they almost advised me to basically burn my plant asap.

I've been told next to cut off all the leaves u ntil there are 2 left on each branch. I'm probably going to bring my plant to an upcoming bonsai show. Hopefully they will help me wire it. It's really embarrassing because i know for a fact my plant will be the worst one there.

For sure it's my first experiment.

I would repot into good bonsai soil and stick it outside in the shade. It needs to get growing well before trying to chop it back. Once it's healthy it will back bud, but you might need to pinch the new growth back to get it budding down low. From there you will have more options on where to take the eventual styling.