名媛直播

Hi all,

New to here - thought this could be the place where I could get some well needed help. I think this plant is a type of bonsai (as it said so when I bought it) but not exactly sure on what family it falls under.

Bought this from Ikea in December and when it was purchased, it was full of leaves (and life!). Over the last few months, a lot of its leaves have fell off and it has become quite bare (in comparison to its previous state). It’s still very much alive and I’d like to return it to its former glory with your help if possible.

I own a lot of plants and have done pretty well in their care over the years but I’m new to this type of plant so after a great deal of research, I’m pretty sure I got the placement and the watering frequency off from the get go. I believe I have resolved these issues but unsure how this plant will grow and if it’s capable of getting back to its former state. There are a lot of bare branch/twigs in the middle of the plant and I know pruning is required but to what level? Do I leave this branches for regrow the or do they NEED to go before regrow the can happen?

Anyway, appreciate any insight anyone can give me. Sorry if this is a rudimentary explanation or understanding for all you experienced bonsai’ers.

Thanks,
Tim

I did post pictures - not sure if they posted!

Hello!
Well, it surely is a Ficus... xD
When you say "some type of bonsai" gives me the feeling that you think that bonsai are specific species, when almost any tree can be turned into a bonsai, bonsai is the art of making a tree look miniaturized and old...

It is quite normal to them to shed some leaves at winter, even more when you buy it and move to your home or a new place... Are you keeping it outdoors? Because a ficus can grow and survive on PROPPER indoors condition, but it will fully thrive in full sun position, I assume you are on northern hemisphere, and spring/summer is the right moment for it, and it seems like it is already shooting new growths. If so, it would be a good moment to fertilise, if you know how to do it.

And no, there is no need to prune the branches right now, the best option is to let it thrive to this season, when it gets a wild crown, you can select the branches you want to keep and the ones you want to remove or dead ones...

That was super helpful, thanks.

I said I wasn’t sure if it was a bonsai because I read some comments on other sites saying “it’s not a real bonsai” and I was beyond confused.

I fertilized it yesterday and it’s now getting around 3-4 hours of direct sunlight every day so fingers crossed!

Thanks for your help, Albas.

Ok....bonsai is the art of creating a miniature of a full size natural old tree. Now take a look at your tree, does it look like an old natural tree? If the answer is yes, then you have a bonsai no matter species. If no, then ask yourself, can it be trained as a natural tree? If the answer is yes, you have a prebonsai, a tree in the making. Unfortunately most ginsengs is just a big blob with some branches grafted on them. They can never be trained like a natural tree unless you are extremelly experienced and talented. Then what you have is a mallsai, a tree that is produced by the millions in asia and shipped to big box stores all over the world, labelled bonsai to increase profitability. That has nothing to do with bonsai.

Well, I think that should be enough direct sun... But I always had mine outside, but well, climate here is propper for them.

About not being a actual bonsai, people are refering to those Ginseng Ficus which are a type of ficus grafted into another fat rooted type, which doesn't seems to be your case.

Here's a link for a video of Peter from Herons, they have many Ficuses.
But you can see that his "indoors" are propper greenhouses, but also he has a few of them on a dryer living room facing windows, which he even says "it is not ideal"... take a look.

Yes Tropfrog, seems like it is a mass producted Ficus, however, I think this tree has potential, if well cared and trained it can become a nice bonsai after all, different than grafted blobs...
And that's why I try not to call my trees "名媛直播", I just call them trees to avoid anything... xD
Maybe someday hopefully I can stand that yes my trees are 名媛直播, after all that's what we aim for right?
But we all have to start somewhere, and our first trees surely won't win any contest... hahaha

Please guys, don't take it too seriously.

I don't want to give you any wrong ideas Teepee, but if the plant was mine, I would be planning to chop it in a year or two to get rid of the general moyogi movement and start to retrain it so it can look more tropical. But after all, what matter if your hapiness with the plant...

Well, Ikea dont have bonsai artists delivering tree to them, do they? Those rebar wounds takes a long time to heal, if ever and dont strike me as natural. In any case, if you like the tree that discussion is not really important. You can care for it as a bonsai and apply all bonsai technices to it. Good training and in a few years you might end up with better materials.

Good point :lol:

And please Teepee, don't be offended with people saying it's a mallsai, I'm sure that their point is not to offend anyone, and most of us started with a mallsai... =]

Appreciate the reply’s.

No offence taken. Still learning and trying to figure out what’s what when it comes to this particular endeavour. I’m going to see what I can do by applying the techniques appropriate and then if I can get it back into some sort of good form, I’ll feel a little more comfortable and experienced when moving onto something else. Thanks again for your insight and pointing me in the right direction.