Root-over-rock bonsai in making

These are night shots (not great though!) with the peepal (ficus) tree lit up by the earthen lamps around it. I'll try get one of those blog befitting pictures one of these days.

There are no short-cuts to a root over rock bonsai. It takes many years.
Typically, bare roots of an year old tree is draped over a large piece of rock. A fissure in the rock helps to settle the roots a little more easily. This arrangement is held securely with a plastic sheet with space to slip in some soil, and to be kept moist with an occasional water spray. While the tree with the bottom roots is put back into the container, half of the rock with the plastic sheet should be visible. The next one and a half or two years, the tree is allowed to grow freely for the root system and the trunk to thicken over time. In the rainy season, the tree is lifted out. Soil is washed away from the rootball. The tree with plastic covered rock is planted into a bonsai pot.Carefully, the plastic sheet is cut off and the roots are seen firmly matted around the rock. Excess shoot growth is pruned, and over the years with pruning and re-potting, the leaf size of the bonsai plant reduces.

I am back with a flowering bonsai

My husband has a passion for bonsais, so I dedicate this post to him. He has immense patience needed to deal with bonsais, resilience to experiment and energy to keep learning. So there is a lot I've picked up from him when it comes to good gardening practices.
Here is one from our collection of bonsais-in-making, a flowering one. It's been flowering profusely this season. Exposure to full sun and limited watering has worked wonders.
We'd be re-potting it soon after it slips into dormancy post flowering. The soil is compact and caked with the roots crowding around the side. The caked on dirt will be brushed away, the pot scrubbed clean, and the wire mesh would probably need a change and new wires to thread, twist and hold the roots together until they are settled in. More importantly, it's when we prune the roots and branches to encourage new growth.
I'll come back with more pictures from our bonsai collection, and keep writing on our tried and tested ways of gardening.