I am new to this forum and this is my first thread post. A senior member, Jelle (leatherback), suggested I post the progression of my Ficus microcarpa, Tiger Bark, which won a place among the 25 Exceptional Tress in the 2013 World Bonsai Friendship Federation (WBFF) Photo Contest.



Forewarned, this post is long since it covers the progress over 19 years.

This ficus has a very humble beginning as a pre-bonsai, purchased for $15 in 1997. What attracted me when I picked it was it had a broad base and the trunk tapered gradually upwards, however, it had several major faults. The trunk looked great from the front but at the back, it beveled inwards like the tree would fall backwards at any moment; and the branches were not at desired places, some thick branches are at the upper sections and they looked unbalanced. Nevertheless it was a cheap tree with challenging potentials.

To correct these faults, I removed all the existing branches and re-grew new branches at places where I wanted. The chopped stump was only 7” tall. Since I live in a hot and humid zone 9, ficus grows vigorously. For the inwards beveled back, I grafted two new roots to fill up the gap and developed the back nebari. You can see the grafted roots in one of the following photo.



After developing the basic structure, I let the tree grew, developed new leader and branches. This is how it looked in May 2001. You can see scars where the unwanted branches were removed.

I fed the tree aggressively with homemade organic fertilizer consisted of cottonseed, bone and blood meals. This is how it looked in May 2008.



To develop ramifications, I defoliated the tree once and sometimes twice a year. This is the defoliated tree in July 2009, the branch structure had developed nicely.



With yearly defoliation, the leaves also reduced in size. A coin, 16 mm in diameter, was placed for comparison.



Grafting two new roots to the back improved the nebari but they also caused an unexpected problem. The lowest back branch grew so vigorous that it became the thickest branch, about 1¾" in diameter, of the whole tree.



In 2012, I attended Pedro Morales’ bonsai class, and discussed this problem with him. He suggested I removed it completely and brought down the next back branch to fill up the gap! It was not an easy decision to remove a big branch that had been growing for the last 15 years.

I was cautious. Since I have photos of the defoliated tree, I used Window's Paint to white out the back branches. Below is the simulated front and back, and they did not look that bad at all.

The thread allows only up to 8 photos, so I will continue the rest of the post:

The next morning I took out my saw and that big branch was gone.



Pedro liked this tiger bark very much and suggested that I entered it at the 7th WBFF photo contest. I have never entered any bonsai contest before, even locally, and this is a world event. Well, he is the master. After hesitating for a long time and waiting for the tree to fill up with foliage again, I finally took the photo and sent it to the North American Region coordinator just a few days before the deadline.

Low and behold, it was selected as one of the North American entries

The 7th WBFF convention was held in Jintan, China, September 25-27, 2012. Only one tree can be submitted per person. Each region can select up to 30 trees for the final world contest which is judged by a panel of international judges. Points were awarded, and the best five trees were chosen. The grand winner went to Japan. The next 25 highest point trees were awarded the Exceptional Trees accolades, followed by Honorable Mentions. There were actually 36 trees in the Exceptional Trees category since some were tied in the awarded points. My tree just barely made it to the 25th place of this category, sharing it with Hans van Meer of the Netherlands. This is totally unexpected; I would be very contented when the tree was chosen as one of the North American entries, never had thought it could go that far. Looking at the winners, they are like who’s who of the bonsai world. Here, a hobbyist who barely made it.

Even a cheap ugly tree, as long as one recognizes its long term potential, with time, training and loving care it can grow into a beautiful tree. I started with a 10” tall pre-bonsai, it ended 19” tall and has a spread of 30” from left to right. So be patient with your trees, time is essence to developments. After taking the entry photograph, I realized there are rooms for improvements. Seeing the tree in person is quite different from a photograph because we go from a 3D to 2D, bends and curves were flattened, and appeared a straight line.

I have since reworked the tree by bending down some branches. This is how it looked in October last year, about 6-8 weeks after defoliation.

*applauds*

Nice work and congratulations,
Ed

Chuah wrote: Forewarned, this post is long since it covers the progress over 19 years.

I read all of it with pleasure. It was certainly not too long.

The tree you choose was a good choice, and obviously, so were the decisions you made along the way.
I'm Dutch, Han van Meer has visited our club last year. Nice guy. He showed us some great trees.
I know the feeling... well, on a lesser level I too was quite content when my juniper, that I considered not a very good tree and actually not even a bonsai yet, actually was admired. Someone even offered me money for it (that content feeling did not last too long - I realized it still had a long way to go).

I learned from your post - never really realized that grafting roots can cause so much extra growth.

You obviously are talented. I hope to see more from you in the future.

Nice

cool deal, that really is, a lot of good work

Beautifull tree and congratulations on all the work youve done to get it to that point.
Regards
Nico

Thank you so much for sharing and expanding on its progression, Chuah. Inspiring tree, as much as the process to reach that transformation is.

Alain

Nice!!

I could honestly read posts like this for days. It is so cool to see the progression of the tree and to get a first hand experience with the decisions that the owner made. It is a beautiful tree and it is a testament to how critical patience is with this art.