Inside Urban Green

A Living Treasure: Ficus Sculpture

This Ficus tree goes by many names including Ginseng Ficus and Chinese Banyan. Read what Jerry Meislik, (aka Bonsaihunk) has to say about them.

Most of these trees are Chinese imports. The trunks are grown on in the ground and then branches are grafted to the sculptural trunks. I have a video somewhere showing how it is done. I will post it when I find it.

The planter is a Lechuza Classico and you can see by the water level indicator that the tree is growing in hydroculture or sub-irrigation. 

If you buy one of these most interesting Ficus sculptures, be sure to install it in a sub-irrigated (aka "self-watering") planter (SIP) and you will own a valuable living plant treasure for a very long time.

The photo is from Plant Solutions in Scottsdale, Arizona. There are many more albums of photos. Also visit their most impressive main website.

Life Size Bonsai: Samir Kassir Square, Beirut

What beautiful Ficus trees. What a beautiful urban greenscape. It is an Aga Kahn award winner.

The art of bonsai strives to emulate scenes in real life like this one. Using simple methods everyone can do it. All it takes is practice, practice, practice and prune, prune, prune. Learn from a Ficus bonsai master here. 

For a better understanding of the project view a video here (expands to full screen).

Source: 78.136.16.169

Samir Kassir Square
Beirut, Lebanon

Six Month Old Ficus Converted to No-Hassle Hydroculture

Only 6 months old from rooted cuttings. The tree is about to be installed in expanded clay pebble media. (See the finished photo below.) The 1/2" plastic tube is for checking the water level with a pipette. It is anchored at the bottom in a bottle cap that has a 1/2" hole to fit the tube.

This Ficus tree was propagated from cuttings just six months ago. It is the same tree in yesterday's post. Today I removed the soil from the roots and converted it to hydroculture in expanded clay pebble media.

It now lives in an inexpensive ceramic rice bowl in bonsai style. If not for the fact that I do applied research on soil media plants, I would convert all of the 70 Ficus trees in my collection to hydroculture.

If you are interested in the art of indoor Ficus bonsai, Jerry Meislik aka "bonsaihunk" is a well recognized master of the art. There is a wealth of information on his site. 

Click on the photos for a larger view on Flickr.

The 1/2" clear plastic tube is for checking the water level in the clay pebble media. Normally I would cut it close to grade level. I left it longer so it would be visible in the photo.

Simply insert a piece of 1/4" clear plastic tube to the bottom. Hold your finger over the top end and lift. You will be able to see the exact level of water in the planter. This is called a pipette. 

I also installed a layer of polished pebbles over the top of the clay pebble growing media. Most people looking at this plant would assume it is growing in soil media.

No soil, no drain hole, no waste of water and time...and no problem growing a healthy little bonsai that can last for generations to come.

Six Month Old Ficus Produces a New Tree

Only 6 months old from rooted cuttings.

The Ficus benjamina above was propagated from a small bundle of cuttings. They were rooted in a sub-irrigated (aka "self-watering) planter (SIP) made from a repurposed soda (pop) bottle only six months ago.

I pruned it today and concealed the soda bottle SIP inside a ceramic cachepot from IKEA as shown below.

The cuttings will be propagated the same way and produce yet another tree. So the cycle continues. There are now seventy trees in the collection and counting.

Only 6 months old from rooted cuttings

Meet the Celebrity Gardener - BusinessWeek

A year round bonsai and fresh vegetable business could work in any city in the U.S.A. Any highly motivated urbanite using modern marketing and production technology such as sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) could be successful. It's fine if you are one, but you don't need to be a farmer or dirt hugger. You just need to get it! 

We have yet to really tap into the potential for new small businesses and green jobs in the field of urban greenscaping. This is where I plan to spend the majority of my time in the coming year.

Source: www.businessweek.com

Backyard bonsai

Returning to France in 1989, he set up a bonsai-growing business in his backyard in Chapet, about 30 kilometers northwest of Paris.

The Ficus Forum

  Photos and trees by Mauro Sayao De Miranda, Rio De Janiero, Brazil showing a Ficus benjamina variegata before and after after applying his bonsai art

Some of the most knowledgeable people about indoor Ficus trees are bonsai practitioners. One of them is Jerry Meislik author and webmaster of the BonsaiHunk. 

All of his website is worth exploring but The Ficus Forum is of particular value to those of us with an interest in tabletop Ficus trees as indoor plants.  

I've grown tabletop Ficus trees that are similar to the one at the top, but the styling of the tree in the lower photo is a level above me. It's on a long list of things to learn.