BINDING ROOTS – MY ROOT-OVER-ROCK (ISHITSUKI) STYLE BONSAI

by: Norberto Betita

I have long since liked to plant more bonsai on rocks experimenting on how a few small roots could eventually grow into a fantastic display of complex aerial roots and bind the rock. Most of my rock dweller specimens are of the Ficus variety and a few Schefflera.  These plants are the only varieties that could really bound the rocks upon which they are planted even to the end of covering the whole rock with enlarged and growing number of aerial roots.

One of the fastest binders I have observed is the Ficus virens var. Sublanceolata.  Except for a few specimens which are grown from seeds, these trees were raised from out of small cuttings originally planted in deeper pots until they grow two or three longer and larger roots, The growing specimens were then replanted over dead coral rocks with their roots reaching the soil. The roots are bound into the rock for it to hold on. As they start to take the nutrients, more aerial roots grow and are guided towards the soil. As these aerial roots reached the soil they grow and again produce other roots until they are multiplied more and more eventually binding the rock tightly that you can pull the plant without dropping the rock.

Ficus Rubiginosa (Rusty Fig) is also one variety that produces multiple roots and very resilient. It can produce more branches even when planted over a rock and provided with very limited soil only. It easily produces more fruits even with very limited nutrients. Its leaves are shiny and grow faster. When pruned it easily produces new shoots. Small birds usually enjoyed feeding from these trees because of its abundant fruits. Seeds from the wastes of birds are carried by ants into the crevices of concrete blocks and new trees grow as epiphytes growing on decorative rocks on walls.  These new trees in crevices are good specimens for another root over rock style because they produce longer roots while growing in crevices dependent on air and minimal water.

Like the Ficus Rubiginosa, the Ficus Microcarpa (Ficus Crassifolia or Wax Ficus) is also a rock binder and dweller, and good fruit producer. It produces fruits the whole year round.It can survive over a rock with very limited soil. Its leaves are round and shiny and thick. It is a dwarf variety with short and smaller branches especially when grown in a shallow pot. I had not seen this variety growing into a large tree in our place even if planted on natural ground. It can easily be reproduced from a cutting especially when it is cut together with an aerial root and planted with it.

The aerial roots of a Ficus Retusa (Banyan Fig or Taiwan Ficus) variety usually grow from the top down. When properly guided and regularly checked, they bind the trunk and into the rock where the trunk is planted until it reached the soil. As more aerial roots are produced the whole trunk is covered and even the rock becomes almost invisible that the large multiplied roots forms like a large trunk.  

The Willow Leaf Ficus (Ficus Celebensis) variety is also a rock dweller. It also produces more aerial roots which I found to be generally more resilient than other aerial root. For some reasons these aerial roots are not easily rotten even during rainy days when they are left under daily rains and exposed to root drowning. This variety also easily produces new shoots when pruned. Its branches are fast growing.

Hawaiian Umbrella Bonsai Tree
(Arboricola Schefflera)---Exposed Roots Style

The living art of bonsai is not only an antidote to life’s stresses but it also opens one’s heart and mind to some of the most important lessons of life. The daily watch of the struggles of these little trees to grow and bear fruit in a very limited soil and very shallow containers with so little space for water and nutrients essential to its growth, leaves for the bonsai hobbyist and bonsai collectors lessons of hope and assurance that life can be joyful and satisfying notwithstanding adversities and trials. The ability of these little plants to thrive and bloom even in such unfavourable circumstances, help us to better understand the living reality that life is indeed a test of survival, and those who endure are blessed with growth and progress.

Hawaiian Umbrella Bonsai Tree
(Arboricola Schefflera)---Root-Over-Rock Style

In the spiritual perspective, it leads us to an undeviating consciousness of the wonders of creation and the eternal purpose of life. As humming birds come to partake of the fruits of these little trees, we are reminded of the words of Jesus Christ, “Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they.” (3 Nephi 13: 26). As new shoots develop and grow into bunches of beautiful and green shiny leaves, our minds could easily recount these words from the Creator Himself, “...Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of this. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothed you, if ye are not of little faith.” (3 Nephi 13: 28-30). It could also be a reminder that, “...all things which come of the earth,... are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart. Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul.... to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion.” (D & C 59: 18-20). I love my rock dweller (Ishitsuki) bonsai trees.