Today I came into possession of the Ficus microcarpa pictured below. It was originally Frank Hiraoko's. He was a member of the original Denver Bonsai club. His family donated it to DBG after he died in 2014. In December of 2014 it was pruned back to a stump. I started wiring it in October 2019. Then COVID came.
Now I am thinking about where to take it. It hasn't been repotted since at least 2014 and the root ball is solid. You can lift it out of the pot intact. So the first thing will be to repot it this summer.
I like the trunk line up to the lowest red line. After that it get kind of straight. I am interested in peoples ideas about styling. I could air layer it at the first or second red lines. My current thinking is the second. There are several long branches that can be used for through grafts. I think that low left branch will eventually go.
Thoughts?
It has the makings of a very nice tree. No on the chopping. Bring the low branch on the left down and let it grow to thicken it. Bring first branch on the right down a lot lower to flow to the right a lot more actuating the curve to the right in the trunk. Bring the next bunch of branches lower to move with the first branch on the right. The top of the tree is perfect to form an apex of the tree by selectively picking and moving branches down/out to form a broad apex tapering down to form a triangle shaped apex when done. Overall height of the tree will be much lower and more powerful when done.