edprocoat
Masterpiece
I had two nice Ficus, a micocarpa and a philipena, I think thats how they were spelled, anyway the microcarpa was twelve years old and had great little leaves and I trained it to look like a mushroom and pulled down three small branches two on the right and one on the left looking from the front and buried them in the soil to make it look like a banyan tree, which was very nice looking believe it or not. The branches became like roots over the years and thickened up nicely to about a fourth the size of the trunk which was almost 3 inches wide, the tree was 24 inches tall and 18 inches wide at the base of the mushroom like canopy. The other one was trained to look like a windswept willow tree as it had more slender leaves which reduced easily through defoliating mid summer and was 26 inches tall. These two plants were removed from my front door two years ago. I found Ficus so easy to work with and quick growing and resilient. I gave some layered pieces to friends from branches I culled over the years and sadly they have all been killed off.
Since the loss of these plants I have been scouring wal mart, where I got the first one, and home depots and target stores and meijer and any little nursery I come across from Ohio where I summer to Florida where I spend the winter months with no luck finding a Ficus of any variety.
Recently I found a Varieagated Ficus Benjamina, which I am not crazy about as it was six little shoots about the thickness of the lead in a pencil, they had several dozen of the same plant and this was about the best choice I had. I am not crazy about the color of the leaves either, but I wanted a Ficus to work with.
I planted one on a small rock and want to keep it in the Mame category, its doing fine, but the whitish yellow fringe around the leaves just does not say tree to me. I took the other ones and decided to remove about an inch of the bark around the trunk as if air layering just above the soil line of three of them and removed half the bark on one side of each the remaining two in the same inch long area. I brushed a little rooting hormone on the exposed surfaces and stuck them all together with the two with the bark removed on one side only on either side and wound them in plastic and wrapped the plastic with twine to hold it all together. My reason, to make a trunk about a half inch wide, I pulled the outer two down into the soil and ground layered them leaving only the top quarter of an inch sticking out. I hoped they would root and I would let them grow to about four inches and pull it back and graft it back into the trunk again while leaving it still rooted into the soil. After finishing this I defoliated it and set it in the shade for a week to let it die, as I said I do not like the leaves, or maybe recoup and start to grow. Well despite all my torture it has started new growth. maybe I will wind up with a neat little tree with ugly whitish yellow fringed leaves, who knows it may even worm its way into my heart.
ed
Since the loss of these plants I have been scouring wal mart, where I got the first one, and home depots and target stores and meijer and any little nursery I come across from Ohio where I summer to Florida where I spend the winter months with no luck finding a Ficus of any variety.
Recently I found a Varieagated Ficus Benjamina, which I am not crazy about as it was six little shoots about the thickness of the lead in a pencil, they had several dozen of the same plant and this was about the best choice I had. I am not crazy about the color of the leaves either, but I wanted a Ficus to work with.
I planted one on a small rock and want to keep it in the Mame category, its doing fine, but the whitish yellow fringe around the leaves just does not say tree to me. I took the other ones and decided to remove about an inch of the bark around the trunk as if air layering just above the soil line of three of them and removed half the bark on one side of each the remaining two in the same inch long area. I brushed a little rooting hormone on the exposed surfaces and stuck them all together with the two with the bark removed on one side only on either side and wound them in plastic and wrapped the plastic with twine to hold it all together. My reason, to make a trunk about a half inch wide, I pulled the outer two down into the soil and ground layered them leaving only the top quarter of an inch sticking out. I hoped they would root and I would let them grow to about four inches and pull it back and graft it back into the trunk again while leaving it still rooted into the soil. After finishing this I defoliated it and set it in the shade for a week to let it die, as I said I do not like the leaves, or maybe recoup and start to grow. Well despite all my torture it has started new growth. maybe I will wind up with a neat little tree with ugly whitish yellow fringed leaves, who knows it may even worm its way into my heart.
ed