My effort to make a banyan bonsai !!

Though there are no short cut to success usually, few examples are existing in bonsai art. After going through a lot of websites I came to know that we can make a wonderful bonsai with bigger trunks by collecting the trees from wild (yamadari) which will reduce about 10-15 years or even 25 years insome cases as it would take to start from a young sapling or seed. I have given below one of my attempt combined with an interesting banyan bonsai.

After seeing the banyan bonsai or the rainforest bonsais in the  Fukubonsai from Hawai (http://www.thefukubonsai.com/), I was verymuch impressed with them. The significance of banyan bonsai is the aerial roots, it requires much humidity to form the aerial roots. We know very well about the higher humidity of chennai and a famous banyan in Adyar. During  my  recent visit to a nursery in Madavaram, I found a tall (4-5 meters ht) ficus tree  of about 8 years old with a very impressing trunk and nebari structure and a lot of aerial roots, and it was in the nursery for few years with no takers, once a person advanced to buy and didnt turnout.

When I saw it accidentaly  I started to imagine it immediately in the form of a bonsai from the look of its trunk strucuture and aerial roots (thanks to Ms.Suseela of bodhi bonsai for inspiration, who is growing a ficus tree for 25 years, thought it will have a very good future and bought it for Rs. 900/=. We cut all  the top big branches (few of them I potted now for rooting and will make a new trees) and brought home in my car. But it was very difficult to lift the tree in big cement pot with full of sand ( more than 20 Kg) and I had to lift it to the 2nd floor of my apartment !!!. So we decided to remove the tree from the pot, bare root it then it would be easier to lift the tree and empty pot separately. But it took me a whole day to do this under the hot sun. It was very difficult to remove the tree without breaking the big pot.

Finally I managed to bring the tree and the pot successfully to my terrace and joined them again. I am planning to grow thick side brances and develop aerial roots from it (it may require grafting).