A friend’s ficus

Here is a Ben that belongs to a friend. I don’t think he has any other bonsai trees, but has had this one for a very long time. I repotted it for him a few years ago, and he mentioned last week it was looking weak and maybe it needed to be repotted. Last time, it barely came out of the pot, but it did, and I managed to trim it back enough to get it back into the original pot.  Here is how it arrived today. Unfortunately, the pot broke this time as I was working to extract the tree.

So I played around with a few pot choices as a replacement…

Deep-sided Koyo (he must be a really good friend, right?), it is a bit constrictive, too deep, and the glaze is not a fit

Production-grade Japanese unglazed rectangle, around 14″ wide and 2.5″ deep:

DaSu “fossil” special process pot.  This is actually one of my first pots.  I bought it around 1996.  It’s a tad small, but the color is nice with the foliage.  If I was determined, this could work:
A pot with “Lotus” written on the bottom.  I bought it in Highlands, NC for $20.  It’s a maybe, but I don’t like the foot out front for this one:

I won’t make you wait a week on this ficus-pot matchup.  I went with the Japanese unglazed rectangle.  After combing out the matted roots and lightly trimming the downward-facing roots, the remaining root ball looked pretty promising:

Secured to the pot:

And soil worked in carefully to all the crevices:

And leveled off:

Here’s the money shot:

And as it turns out, I couldn’t just toss out the pot.  Using some epoxy and painter’s tape, I put it back together again.  I just had to remind my friend that his ficus has officially outgrown it!

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