Trees

This is a ficus. One of the more fully developed trees I have in the process of becoming a bonsai. This tree was given to me by my senior project mentor. It is a twin trunk, made up of two different trees.

This ficus has good taper, but with a lot of the branches coming from one spot it has some swelling up high, some of these branches should be pruned in order to keep the tree thicker at the base. 

This is a little fir, small enough that I could use wire to make a bend in the trunk. When the tree grows, the trunk will harden in that position giving it a more interesting shape than the strait line it was in prior. 

This is a European olive, a very slow growing tree with small leaves perfect for bonsai.  This tree is relatively close to the size of trunk I want before I start developing branches. It has good taper, and is very easy to get to back bud. 

This ficus has a very large base with small shoots coming form the sides. It was cut back heavily, and I will wait for the new branches to develop before I make more cuts.

Willow trees grow very fast and are good to learn with as they recover from getting cut quickly. This tree has a strait trunk, so I am thinking of cutting a lot of it off, and letting a new trunk grow. 

These two trees are pitch pines. Collected from rail road tracks. The trees are cleared every year so they don't grow onto the tracks, which keeps them small with thick trunks, perfect for bonsai.

These are two hawthorn trees. They are pretty long with small trunks and should be cut back soon in order to develop taper. They back bud pretty easily meaning they are healthy and should respond well.