Hi all,

A friend gifted me a formerly 7-foot Ficus Benjamina that he was about to throw in the dumpster. He chopped the trunk(s) down to about a foot so he could more easily lift it to throw out.

I was able to rescue it, but only after the trunk chop... I still think it could make a great bonsai tree, but I've never tackled anything like this before.

It's about 14" high with a couple of patches of foliage (and spiders) throughout. The multi-trunk diameter is about 8 inches and it's sitting in a 20" deep pot. It looks like a lot of the trunks are fusing together, so it's got a really cool look to it. He said it's been sitting in the same soil for years, but it seems to be doing alright despite that.

Question is: what do I do with this thing?? I know I need to get it into a more shallow pot, but I think I should wait until its peak growing season to do that. Also, I know this tree isn't a fan of predictable backbudding, so I'm going to have to take what I get.

With this many trunks, I have no idea how to achieve any kind of taper. I suppose I could cut the outside trunks shorter than the middle ones, but I'm afraid of getting ride of any more foliage (especially since there is none on the middle trunks). What would you do if this were your tree?? Thanks to everyone in advance!