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Hi all,

I received about 8 months ago a ficus bonsai as a gift from this very site, and I'm working on learning when/how to prune, and the aesthetics of shaping.

The tree spent the entire summer outdoors and has been inside since mid-autumn (generally south-facing, plus a light at night). The tree came with this rather bottle-brush look on top, and I'm wondering if anyone can suggest ways to approach improving the structure?

I've struggled with balancing pruning--it seems like cutting back the shoots to 2 leaves to cause new growth conflicts with only pruning off 20-30% at once. Since I don't think this species goes dormant in winter I was also not sure what time of year is good for what kind of pruning.

You can see a pic of the tree attached, and I've just started to try wiring. You're welcome to critique that, as well, but this is just a first try on a couple branches to get the hang of it so I'm not claiming it's good. Comments appreciated, thanks.

Design wise this tree has a few flaws that I would want to change if it were my tree.

The root base (nebary) needs some serious work. Since it is a risky operation, I would take care of that first. If it dont work out you havent sacrified years of growth and hours of work in vain.

The tree looses its taper after the first bransch into a quite straight section. I would adress that after the rootwork and recovery. Eighter by trying to get some movement inte it or cut it all of and grow the lower branch into new trunk.

In my opinion it is way to early to work on branch structure. Just cut back when grown to tall to keep things in check.

But: hard to say something for sure from a two dimentional photo. I would spend hours staring at the tree from all angles before making any decitions.

And: As allways, its your tree. You make the vision and the plan for it.

Thanks for your comments.

Most of what I've read about roots so far is that you want them to look old and interesting, and these seemed to fit the bill, so I haven't thought about them much. Considering it's my first bonsai, it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to take on a "risky" operation, but if you can point me at any reading materials regarding the concern you'd have with the current root structure, I'd love to learn about it.

I'm guessing I need to pick a leader branch as the top section of the trunk and form it up right. If it's too early to worry about the other branches I can let them go for now, but of course I'd like the tree to look nice as early as possible, so I was hoping I could get it going in the right direction.

plus a light at night

Why at night? Put that light on in the morning from 7:00 till 23:00 hours or something. So it can get a few dark hours to rest.

If you like the roots as they are, there are no reason to change. Its your tree.

My concern is bad balace in the surface roots. Google nebari and you will see how old roots look like. Evenly spread, similar size and flaring out, giving the tree a firm base to the ground.

If you want the tree to grow higher, then you can do as suggested and wire a new leader. If you want the aproximately hight it has now, then shoose 3 branches to build a crown from.

Nice, it looks really good. Good job!