When it comes to styling.....You are the artist. There are no right or wrong, just guidelines. Look for reference pictures on ficus bonsai trees online. When you find something you like, use it as inspiration. Look at your tree and try to figure out how to make your tree into your reference tree. Do it need a thicker trunk? Place it in a bigger pot and let it grow freely. Does it need a better root base? Do a repot and root trim. Does it need better taper in the trunk? Cut back hard and regrow (obviously in a bigger pot). Does it need more ramification? Prune several times yearly.
It all begins with the artist and the artists vision. If we dont know what you want to create it is not possible to tell you how.
Think about painting.....would you go to ask anyone how to draw a painting? Any painter would say you did not give enough information and ask you things like what do you want to paint? What do you wany to paint on? What tecnique do you want to use, etc.
So take your time and put your focus on growing a healthy tree. Meanwhile read up on basic styles and tecniques. If you manage to get the tree grow healthy. Come back to us and show us what you have and what you want to achieve. All of us gets triggered by a tree with potential and a clear vision for it.
When it comes to aversion to indoor trees in the hobby. There is a reason for that. Most us don't live in a place where the trees get right conditions indoors in winter (including all of Japan, where this hobby has evolved). Those that do have the right conditions indoors in winter usually are better off growing them outdoors. We, that cannot grow in living room conditions in winter needs supplement light, humidity and temperature controlled area. Then the hobby is more about the gadgets that are needed to keep the tree alive than about the art of developing an image of an old tree in miniature.
There are a few persons that do take the extra effort to create the right conditions indoors. Most of them live in areas where it is extreamly cold and few species can be grown outdoors year round. Check out nigel saunders (the bonsai zone) and Jay Malores (blue Jay bonsai) on Youtube. There are a few more youtubers from Toronto bonsai society that is worth checking out. Most of them favours locally hardy species, but grow tropicals indoors because of the long and cold winter.
Oh, yea.....60 Fahrenheit or 15 celsius is quite a good temperature for ficus without suplemental light in winter in most places. Where I live in Sweden it is way to warm, I need to go down to 10c to balance temperature to awailable sunlight and it will still elongate. Going lower can adventure the health of the tree. But we all have different challenges. That is why the best recomendation is always to reach out to people in your local area that are successful in growing the species you want to grow and check how they are doing it.
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