At that stage I was hunting for the species and did not care if it had potential or not. The main reason I bought it was to obtain some cuttings from it. Soon afterward I got some better material from another guy and decided to give the tree a go.
The tree October 2009 after growing freely from the time I bought it:
This is the tree the same month after chopping the leader and cutting back a few twigs:
That sure looks ugly!
The trunk had a nice line and taper - the biggest problem was the big ugly bulge that was left after the tree was chopped by the first owner. As soon as the tree recovered from the cut back I have cut away the ugly bulge leaving an even uglier wound. To help the wound grow over I only cut back twigs once a year. I also realized that I would have to hide the wound for a few years until it has grown over - deadwood is not an option when it comes to Ficus.... no hollow trunk for this ugly duckling! The tree was also planted into a shallow but wider pot and I feed it on a regular basis with organics.
The tree recovered well and in 2012 it has changed into something!
An ugly duckling changing into a swan:
The wound is growing over nicely - another two years and the chop mark will be gone. From 2012 I cut back growth regularly to get some twiggy growth going. In January 2014
I repotted the tree into a bonsai pot:
I had to cut two long coiling roots - to help the tree recover I also cut back the twigs. The tree will be left in a shaded area to recover. The tree is about 10cm high.
Another pic to show the size:
(Some info on the species here: http://lennardsbonsaibeginnings.blogspot.com/2009_10_22_archive.html . What most people do not know that this species is a rambler growing on rocky cliffs.)
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