by Penny Pawl
You have probably seen them in your doctor's office or as shade trees as you walked down a street in some tropical town, or even as a small house plant at the florist. What are they? Ficus benjamina or weeping fig. They can grow well in a shady spot or even in the house.
Ficus include the huge banyan trees on the Big Island of Hawaii, the fig tree you are growing in your garden for the fruit, rubber trees and the smaller ornamental ficus used as houseplants.
I have a large collection of ficus bonsai. Most of these are from trimmings taken as cuttings from my original trees.
Ficus root readily and right now I have one growing roots in my cloner, a device that washes the roots with water and stimulates them to grow. The ficus has been in the cloner less than two weeks and roots are sprouting.
The first ficus I purchased was at a nursery in Sebastopol and it was imported from China. It had been grown to be a bonsai. Then I began to find some ficus with narrow leaves or smaller leaves. These are called sports and they must be grown from cuttings for the leaves of the offspring to stay true to the parent. If grown from seed, the offspring may revert to the original leaf size. However, I have never had seeds on any of my plants. The leaves on most of the sports are much narrower than normal ficus leaves.
One of my favorite ficus came from Hawaii many years ago. A friend brought back a tiny plant and gave it to me. It is still tiny, about eight inches tall with hefty roots.
One of the things I love about ficus for bonsai is how quickly the roots develop and get really interesting. Old-looking surface roots are important in bonsai and help give the appearance of age, which is something this art form tries to achieve: young plants that look aged.
During the winter months, because they are tropical, I put all my ficus in my greenhouse to keep the roots from freezing. When spring arrives, I start moving them out so they don't overheat and so they get more sunlight. Ficus can be grown indoors, but because the leaves are looking for sunlight, they get bigger. If you keep them outside in filtered sunlight, the leaves stay small and more in keeping with bonsai rules.
Ficus do require a lot of grooming or leaf pruning. They tend to grow long branches and every few months require a good haircut. And that is how I end up with cuttings. Sometimes I prune out a branch and into the soil mixture it goes.
Another reason I enjoy working with ficus is that I can try different planting methods with them. Last spring I took a rooted cutting and spread the roots over a stone. I covered the entire stone with soil and put it in a large training pot to let the roots grow and cling to the stone. Eventually I will remove all the soil and plant the ficus in a bonsai pot. In the year that this ficus has been growing on the stone, the plant has tripled in size. I have also uncovered a root near the trunk that has increased in size.
I do not prune this little ficus because I want the tree to have a lot of growth and vigor. Eventually I will shape it and perhaps wire it. Now I am growing what are called sacrifice branches. They will be shortened or removed when I do the shaping.
Wiring is a bonsai technique used to shape the trunk and branches. Although copper wire is the choice of most bonsai enthusiasts, a lot of us use copper-coated aluminum which is easier to bend. Copper wire holds its shape better but also gets very rigid and has to be cut off a branch or trunk in small pieces. Aluminum wire can be re-used without baking it in a fire to soften the wire.
Ficus originated in Asia and have religious significance in some regions. Banyan trees are considered holy in Islam.
Ficus are not drought tolerant and need water and nutrients to keep them growing. I repot mine about every two years as the roots quickly fill the pots. And I use a soil-less bonsai mix so that the many rootlets have room to grow.
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- Author: Penny Pawl
In the Japanese language, bonsai means tree in pot. However, bonsai are much more than just potted trees. Bonsai is a living art form.
There are many rules on designing trees to give the look of age. With practice, bonsai devotees master these rules and they become second nature. Bonsai has taught me patience. It takes years to develop a sprig into an old-looking tree.
Practitioners of bonsai take care to consider the natural growth tendencies of the plant. Typically, plants used for bonsai have small leaves or needles. Junipers, pines, elms and maples are good candidates. On some plants the leaves will grow smaller because of the restricted root growth. And while bonsai can be of great age, they have young roots and top growth on old trunks.
Many centuries ago the Chinese were doing a form of bonsai called Penjing. The Japanese borrowed this art form and added to it along the lines of Zen Buddhism.
There are many styles in bonsai but the most common is the informal upright or moyogi. If the trunk has any kind of bend then it is moyogi. Trees with a perfectly straight trunk are formal uprights or chokkan. In all cases, the roots should appear to be grasping the earth and the trunk should be tapered.
The first thing to do is determine the front of the tree. It should look approachable, as if you could walk under the branches. My first bonsai teacher said a bird should be able to fly through the branches.
The placement of branches is next. They should be of uneven number and well-spaced around the tree. Wire is placed on the branches to give the look of age and they are moved into desirable positions. The wire used is either copper-coated aluminum or annealed copper.
In addition to the two basic styles there are many others, including windswept (shakan), cascade (kengai) and semi cascade (han kengai). Tray Landscape (saikai) is very popular also.
Bonsai came to the United States after the Second World War, when Japanese-Americans became more interested in their traditions from Japan. I read once that a Japanese man who was interned during the war crawled out of the camp under the watchful eye of a guard and collected a small tree outside the fence. When the American soldiers who were stationed in Japan returned to the U.S., they brought this art form with them.
Slowly groups of interested people got together, clubs were started and many bonsai were developed. At first some of these groups were restricted to Asians but slowly they allowed non-Asians to join. I have known several people who have spent a year or more in Japan studying under the masters of bonsai. They return home with increased knowledge and are in demand as instructors.
Many books have been written about bonsai. These books discuss the various styles and the rules of display. The art form has spread all over the world.
There is a wonderful collection of Japanese bonsai sent to the United States in honor of our 200th anniversary. These are cared for and on display at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. There is also a collection of American bonsai at the same arboretum. Closer to Napa, the Golden State Bonsai Federation Garden on Lake Merritt in Oakland is another collection to see.
At the Master Gardener Fall Faire on Thursday, October 5, the Napa Valley Bonsai Club will have an exhibit. Be sure to visit the booth and find out about this living art. The club was started over 30 years ago and continues to bring together people dedicated to this unusual craft.
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