January 21, 2008

• All I know about ficusususeseses is that no matter what I've ever tried to do to "fix" or "help" on has resulted in its swift and pathetic demise. Touchy monsters. Whatever you do, do it with caution. Just moving one from one room to another killed my last one. Well, the last one that wasn't fake.
• P.S. My boss has a gorgeous bamboo. He swears the key is to not let them stay in water indefinitely, but to plant them in nice soil.
• Otherwise, they tend to get a bit swampy. But, I do understand that you can cut them back completely, shoots and roots, and it won't be a problem at all. Just switch them to a moist pot before too long. The ficus, idunno. They're rather -- fic-le.
• Wikipedia article. But, good luck! Everyone I've know who tried to grow a ficus has wound up with a carpet full of yellow leaves and a plant with bare branches. And <>bamboo bamboo.
• After three years of keeping it technicaly alive, in a perpetualy state of brown-green scraggliness, I've been toying with the idea of letting my office spider plant die some sort of dignified death.
• > Is it possible to lop off the top here and have it grow normally--with a nice, round, bushy top? Yes, it's possible, but it might mean that you'll end up with a spindly top. Ficus seems to grow more readily at the extremes than off the trunk. You could think about about training the upper branches to turn back on themselves. Even mature branches can be taught to turn backwards with appropriate application of string or wire. If you have to prune, you can cut at the intersections of a main branch and a minor one. If there's some shedding, don't despair. My eight-year-old ficus recently lost about 75% of its leaves, probably because of cold weather while we were away from the house in December. New growth is appearing all over, and I expect it will look fine again in about a month. This is the third time something like this has happened with this plant - although ficus is notoriously fussy, I think it's quite hardy as well.
• You mention that your previous bamboos got spindly and yellow. I do know that indoor bamboo is very light-sensitive. It wants not too little, and not too much. I know someone who put his in direct sunlight, and it was dead within a week. *rollseyes* Indirect sunlight is best for indoor bamboo. A north or east window would be good, or an interior room where it gets only artificial light. The best desktop bamboos I've seen have all been in corporate office environments, where their only light source is a battery of fluorescent tubes 8 feet overhead. Once you find the right spot for it, it's pretty hardy and can be trimmed and repotted at will.
• Ficus can be fickle, but most varieties are surprisingly tolerant of abuse. First of all: Ficus is not a single plant,but the family name of about 770 different species with very varied needs and caracteristica. Apart from the edible fig (Ficus Carica)which we eat at X-mas the well known "Rubberplant" is also a ficus - Ficus Elastica in latin. Ficus Microcarpa is a banyan-kind of tree with great, swollen roots, and is very popular as an indoor bonsai. Ficus Benjamina (Weeping Fig) and Ficus Retusa (Upright Fig) are the ones most often encountered as indoor trees, and I would be surprised if it is not one of these two you have. Ficus absolutely hate draft! Ficus absolutely hate to be moved from one place to naother. If you do, be prepared to watch your tree "sulk" and drop its leaves in protest! Take it easy - they will grow back. Another reason for leaf dropping can be the climate - if the light intensity goes below a certain level, the tree decides that it is winter, and some of them will shed about 2/3rd of their leaves in response. Again - they will grow back in spring. Most Ficus are tolerant of erratic watering, but they do prefer to be on the wet side, as long as the roots are not waterlogged all the time. If they are, they will promptly rot, and the tree will die. As for pruning - most Ficus responds well to pruning, and the smaller leaf varieties are favorite subjects for bonsai treatment. I own several Ficus bonsai, the oldest of wich I have had for 25 years - indoor all the time, although some of my younger trees go on vacation in my garden for the duration of our short scandinavian summer. Ficus are not - repeat not - hardy and will die if exposed to frost. Finally - most ficus varieties prefer lots of light, but not direct sunshine. Place your tree in a place with as much light as possible, preferably facing North, to avoid singing by direct sunlight. By the way - if you are in doubt if a woody plant or tree or just a branch or a twig on a tree is alive, just scratch the bark with your fingrnail. If a layer of green shows up beneath the brown bark, the tree is alive even though it may be completely devoid of leaves. I hope you will succeed in reviving your Ficus. Of Indoor bamboo I have no tips to share, other than most bamboos like water and that means both around the rootball and around the foliage. Try placing the pot on a tray with a lot of pebbles, and fill the tray with water so that the moisture will envelop the foliage as the water evaporizes.
• Bluehorse - I had not noticed your photo links before now. Your Ficus is a Ficus Benjamina weeping Fig, same as my 25-year old (which by the way is only 3o cm tall!) It is a nice plant - all it needs is smome judicious pruning. You can "lop it off" at the indicated spot. If you do, make the cut about 3 cm. from a branch. The remaining stump will later die back to the trunk and can then be removed. If you cut too close to the trunk, you could run into problems. Also, cut back the branches (or most of them) to about half of their present length. The more you prune, the more new and brnching growth the tree will respond with. Do not expect miracles in terms of getting your bare spots covered with new branches from the main trunk - most ficus are notoriously unwilling to sprout fron old wood. However, with the right amount of pruning you should be able to deveop a nice crown in a couple of years.
• Wow, greybeard, I'd sure like to see your bonsai! Thanks for all the great information. I'm going to slowly start to prune my giant bonsai ;) and see how it responds. As to the rest of you, you've scared me half to death to touch the poor thing, although, I must say, I think it's a pretty tough bugger. It gets over/under watered as the mood strikes me, and shoved around from place to place. (The pot's actually on wheels.)It's sitting right by the front door in the draft, and the weather here has been freezing and under for the past two weeks. Didn't bother it to be there last winter, either. I think it's just grateful that I took it from a home where it was an abused stick with two sad leaves. A kind reader emailed me and said my 'bamboo' wasn't really bamboo, but that the Lucky Bamboo you buy in the stores now are actually Dracina (sp?) I think I'm just going to wack away at it and see what happens, since I don't have the emotional attachment as with my little tree. Thanks again for all your help, fellow Monks!
• Hi Bluehorse You are very welcome. If your "bamboo" is not a real bamboo but a Dracaena (correct spelling), you should have no trouble at all. Dracaena are prolific growers, and they will strike roots from any stem stuck in water. They need less water than a real bamboo, and the reason that most people have little luck with growing theie "Lucky Bamboo" (Dracaena)in the long run is simply lack of nutrients. Like most other plants (floating water plants like the water hyacint ecepted) they need to grow in a well drained soil, and to be fertilized with a proprietory fertilizer once in a while - mainly in the growing season (which on the other hand might be all year round if kept indoor and under steady artificial light). The same goes for your Ficus - the pot seems a little small to me, and if it has not been repotted over the past few years, you really should consider doing so, and then start feeding it fertilizer about three months later when the nutrients in the new soil starts to deplete.
• Sorry, GramMa, didn't mean to scare you. But them ficuseses are the devil's own hedgerow.