Andy, I to live in Colorado (Colorado Springs), I have a decent sized
Ficus that I saved from Home Base (it was in a pot with the rocks glued on
it which I removed immediately) over 6 years ago. I has been flourishing in
a southern exposed window. I have bee taking it outside for the first time
to acclimatize to the out doors. Since our nights are still cool I bring
it in after a few hours of sun. A friend of mine from our Bonsai Club grows
numerous varieties of ficus with great success. Are you a member of the
Rocky Mountain Bonsai Club? They are having a show at the Botanical Gardens
this weekend. You may find some vendors with some trees with larger trunks
at a reasonable price. Good luck! If you would like the names of vendors I
use in the area please feel free to e-mail me off the list.

Manny


-----Original Message-----
From: Internet Bonsai Club ]On Behalf
Of AdamA
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 7:54 PM
To:
Subject: [IBC] Begginer with some questions!


Hello! I've been expeimenting with bonsai for almost a 2 years now and
im ready to try a serious Bonsai that hopefuly will turn out nice! My
plant of choice is a ficus trees because for some reason there seem to
be tons at my local nursery (im in Denver, Colorado by the way), they
are also cheap and hard to kill ive noticed so far! Also the ficus has
a neat tropical look which Iike. And I think they are of good bonsai
quality because they come small, and specialy sold as "bonsai
starters" for fairly cheap, around $4-$10 depending how big ya want.
Also ive been trying my luck doing cuttings off my ficus when i pruned
them this spring, hopefully those will turn into free bonsai! hehehehe
They are still alive after 2 weeks!

But anyway recently ive been cruisin the net lookin at bonsai pictures
and I have noticed some bonsai trees have very thick trunks! ANd I was
wondering how you achive this. I was thinking about one picture
specificaly, cant think of where it was of a ficus, and it almost
looked like several trees with their trunks all "braided" as i can
best describe it together. Of course it didnt have the uniformity of
say a hair braid they were just twisted tightly together to fourm one
large trunk, and a very thick canopy. But I was thinking then more, as
those trunks thicken with age woudlnt that cause bad problems? like
the ones in the middle would get squeezed to death? SO then is the
only way to achive a very thick trunk just to let it thicken with age?
;( that takes to long. But I guess this is kinda a hobby that takes
time eh?

Sorry fo sucha long question! lol
Adam

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