PICTURE OF A 1 EURO FICUS, BOUGHT AT A SUPERMARKET, SOME 19 YEARS AGO!

Hi everybody,
some 19 years ago, in my early Bonsai years, I bought in our supermarket a less than a pinkie thick small Ficus for less than a Euro. I thought it could neatly grow with his roots over a moon rock that I had bought that afternoon at our local garden center for 5 Euro. Not realy realizing that that process would last almost two decades in our cold climate. Because of our cold nights, even in summer, this Ficus has to spends 8 months indoor, were it stands under a large window in my loft.It is all very unpractical, but it is one of those trees that you just keep on working on for sentimental reasons!
Last week I felt strong enough to lift this heavy combo down into my garden to finally give it it's next styling. I removed all the foliage and than, spread over two day's, wired the whole tree. Were it comes to the main branch placement, I have made some obvius beginners mistakes in those early years of styling. But even though, I do like the deciduous feel and look of this new image. 19 years, I think that this would have taken no more than 4 or 5 years in Thailand or Indonesia! But that is no reason to not try things every now and than!




Above: 1993, two years after planting on the rock.



Above: The year 1999.



Above: The tree today. 75cm/30inch high. I know it took use a long time, but I am glad I kept on going with this one! After all these years it is coming quit near to the image of the temple trees in "Angor Wat" Cambodia that I had in mind when I started this project!





Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Hello Hans, it's uly boy again!.I take it th Fig has moved elsewhere? It's interesting to swee the relationship between tree and rock change so much in such a short timespan. The rock appears to get smaller.

will baddeley wrote:Hello Hans, it's uly boy again!.I take it th Fig has moved elsewhere? It's interesting to swee the relationship between tree and rock change so much in such a short timespan. The rock appears to get smaller.

Will, I had to chuckle at your Avatar picture. Very clever.... wise old sage.
Salut, Todd

Very impressive progression.
Great work.
Jerry
www.bonsaihunk.us

Hi Hans,

I think this is superb progression, congratulations! A real inspiration given the starting material - time, patience and skill.

Congratiulagtions again.

Jonny.

I must admit that a few day’s ago, after seeing my talented Bonsai story telling friend Jun’s wonderful impression of "Angor Wat", I had become a bit hesitant, to show my attempt to honoring this magical place! But here we go anyway!
A few days ago I defoliated my Ficus root over rock Bonsai once again and than rewired and repositioned the branches into place again. It's branches are multiplied since the last time I work on it, so that wiring took me 7 hours (PFFFFF), but it was worth it in the end! The roots have thickened a lot in two years and the bark is also showing more and more age! Even though taking care of it, is not always easy were I live, this tree is slowly starting to look more and more as a Bonsai and has come fare since I bought it as a pinkie thick plant in our local supermarket! The second right branch has become a bit disturbing, because it is grows from the inside of a curve and is now almost growing from the same height as the opposite left branch. This wasn't this way when I started with this tree all those years ago, but both branches have thickened so much that they grow toward each other! A beginners mistake, but that’s normal! I was just starting with this hobby, when I started to form this tree! I might remove it in the future? But for now it is just fine this way! But remember: branches thicken!

Below: Before work started.



Below: After a lot of wiring!



Below: Close up of the fast thickening roots.



Hope you enjoyed the up date?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

PS: I hope and pray that all is well with Jun and his family!

wooow! very nice! thanks for sharing! Hey, do you have a photo of the back roots of the tree?

Cheers!

Hans,
It looks great.
Jerry

Hi Hans

Nice to see you have a big healthy ficus ...How do you keep it ower the year?
The stone actully looks like Ancor Wat, but I guess the tree was always to big, and not sylet for this....no problem the tree is nice ower the rock.

Kind regards Yvonne

Victorghirotto wrote:wooow! very nice! thanks for sharing! Hey, do you have a photo of the back roots of the tree?

Cheers!

Thanks Victor! I will make one of the backside tomorrow and post them later on!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Wow very nice sir . 19 years!!!

Regards,
Pongsatorn

Great!

I guess this is Ficus benjamina, isn't it?

Yvonne Graubaek wrote:Hi Hans

Nice to see you have a big healthy ficus ...How do you keep it ower the year?
The stone actully looks like Ancor Wat, but I guess the tree was always to big, and not sylet for this....no problem the tree is nice ower the rock.

Kind regards Yvonne

Hi Yvone,
I am glad you like it! I know that this tree those not realy look anything like those mighty wildly shaped Ficus that grow in Angor, but from childhood on (when I first saw pictures in a book about Angor), I was amazed about the fact that those roots could grow over and trough anything that man can make! And thats what I wanted to try realy, to see if it was possible to do this in a Bonsai, with Ficus, in the Netherlands! It was more a homage from me to Angor and it's amazing Ficus trees! One of my first attempts in styling any tree realy, thats why I kept it all those years! And I am glad I did! It is getting better and better and I realy enjoy following it's progress, in conquering that whole stone, from year to year!
cheers,
Hans van Meer.

AlainK wrote:Great!

I guess this is Ficus benjamina, isn't it?

Hi Alain,
yes it is!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

pongsatorn.k wrote:Wow very nice sir . 19 years!!!

Regards,
Pongsatorn

Thank you! And by now it is 21 years!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Victorghirotto wrote:wooow! very nice! thanks for sharing! Hey, do you have a photo of the back roots of the tree?

Cheers!

Hi Victor!
As promised: I found a old picture from 2009 of the backside of the tree. This picture is not to good, but you can see clearly, that the roots on this side are way less impressive as the ones on the front! If you look to were the "red arrow" points, you can see a dark line running to the right side. Well just before this picture was made, I had removed the 2 cm thick layer of ferns that had over grown the Ficus roots completely up to that line! These freed Ficus roots are seeing daylight for the first time in many years! And I think that this fact that the roots were buried/overgrown completely by those ferns for more than 15 years has hindered their growth immensely! The right root at the base of the trunk, that disappears downwards in to the rock is emerging again out of the rock next to the blue arrow.



Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

And a close up picture of the ramification on this Ficus.

Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Hi Hans

This is one of the sweet funny things we, who have grown homemade trees from scratch, for many years gett to enjoy....The old dreams, the good and the bad things we decided to do back then....eveything is here. The skills we have learned through the years, now help us to gett a nice tree out of it after all.....I have had the same experience in my garden for more years, and have also been learning a lot from it. Not only to repare bad choises, but also to do things in a much better way.
Have a nice day

Kind regards Yvonne

Hans van Meer. wrote:
Thank you! And by now it is 21 years!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Ah! Thank you I forget to see the date on the first post

regards,
Pongsatorn.K

Magnific, Hans! I agreed that things you said are the why for the root to not develop so hugely!
Very dense ramification!
I also didn't see the post date, Pongsatorn!

So man, congratulations for this Ficus. Its VERY beautiful, and doing well for a european ficus haha! How he reacts to cold days?

I love ficus'es. My first bonsai ever was a ficus, and he is 4 years with me now. I also have 3 more. All benjamina.
I would post a photo of one or two here, but since i am new to the club, i don't know if that is appropriate.

Thanks! give your ficus a kiss by me hahahahah!