2nd Ryuga Contest Winner - Most Original Design Award

The winners of the 2nd ofBonsai Magazine Progressive Styling Contest sponsored by RYUGA Bonsai Tools and International Bonsai Magazine have finally been announced today here : http://ofbonsai.org/contest/2nd-ryuga-contest-winners-are

[ OfBonsai is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance. If the links do not work, please try again later  or at a later date. ]

I had three entries for this contest :

• A miniature rose
• A cuphea
• A ficus benjamina

My Rose entry was awarded "Most Original Design Award"

---

Here's a quick before / after of those three entries.

Rose entry:

Common Name: Miniature rose
Latin Name: Rosa chinensis ‘Minima’
Contest page: http://ofbonsai.org/contest/entry-rosa-chinensis-minima-miniature-rose-mauritius

Initial material : Acquired ( from a cutting apparently )
Training (Time frame) : August 2014 - April 2014 ( roughly 8 months training)
Current status : Still a prebonsai - The fact that I went for a kengai ( cascade ) style requires more attention because the rose has an apical dominance, it naturally gives more energy to the topmost area. I need for the next year or so to force the energy to go toward the lower areas and encourage sacrificial branches to thicken up those lower areas.

Before:

After:

---

Cuphea entry:

Common Name: False Heather
Latin Name: Cuphea hyssopifolia
Contest page: http://ofbonsai.org/contest/entry-cuphea-hyssopifolia-false-heather-mauritius

Initial material : Nursery plant from Vaneron Garden
Training (Time frame) : July 2014 - April 2014 ( roughly 10 months training)
Current status : Personally for me its still a prebonsai - It still needs some work done on it, the back side specially needs to be developped, as well as the apex.

Before:

After:

A mini vid taken in Jan 2014 (3 months before final submission)

---

Ficus entry:

Common Name: Weeping Fig
Latin Name: Ficus Benjamina
Contest page: http://ofbonsai.org/contest/entry-ficus-benjamina-weeping-fig-mauritius

Initial material : Acquired at a plant fair
Training (Time frame) : August 2014 - April 2014 ( roughly 8 months training)
Current status : This entry is the one that has evolved the least. Because of the strong bend that I made I decided to go slowly with this material. There's still a long way to go!

Before:

Technical planning:

What I have in mind for the final design of the tree. The blue extensions are sacrificial branches with potential to become jins in the future, or to be completely removed.

The main challenge in this design was the extreme bend, and reducing the foliage closer to the main trunk.

I decided to start with the bend first, and allow the plant to recuperate before attempting to work on the foliage. As such the final submission for this entry is not as interesting or appealing as it should be.


After:

Final submitted picture: Nothing remotely close to my initial design, but I have to go through this step before I can achieve my goal.