I am starting on my Bonsai trip with a few seedlings from the garden - naturally seeded in polystyrene so they are very miniature about 2 inches high - I am assuming I need to pot these on into bigger pots so they grow more.

However my current issue is with some Bonsai I bought from a supermarket. I have one ficus Retusa and one ginseng.

The retusa is a little boring - and I would love to have an interesting shape whether I weigh it or wire it and was just wondering what everyone thought.

The ginseng has an interesting root system that I want to exploit. I was thinking of instead of putting a rock under the tree placing a geode so that when the light shines through it lights up. Any thoughts?? And I would greatly appreciate and help on how to shape the ginseng as well. Would it be easy/ k to lop off the back root so I could grow it around the geode or rock?

They are both apparently around 3 years old.

howdy arielle,
for the seedlings you best bet for faster growth is to put them in the garden in the ground this will produce better growth, wireing and pruning can still be done and the trees will recover better from damage. after a few years you can dig em out if you want.

as for the geode idea i would go for it.it's not the most "natural" look,but it would be cool

we'll all need better pics of the trees to help out with styling ideas

I've been trying to upload pictures but it won't let me - the website keeps coming up with errors. Shall try again.



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Back view.....root I am thinking I want to remove??

Back view.....root I am thinking I want to remove??

retusa





what to do

full ginseng....
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full ginseng....