Re: Ficus lyrata

Way too big to survive with only a hand-dug root ball, Donna. Would need a power shovel and a boom truck.

On Monday, July 5, 2004, at 08:44 PM, Donna wrote:

Hum... no chance the yard guy with that great spade/shovel could chop
some roots and move it?

My mother had some type of indoor (for here) fig. Smaller leaf variety.
Had it in the corner window for many years. When she moved here a few
years back it had grown threw the open weave drapery there. It stayed
with the house :)

Donna


I've got a fiddleleaf fig in the backyard that is maybe 15 feet tall.
It's planted right next to the house, and I'm somewhat fearful that
its 
roots will damage the foundation. I talked to the yard guy today, and
he's coming next Saturday [or Sunday... this is Florida, hey! Exact
times are, well, inexact].

This particular plant was a house plant we brought with us when we
moved down here. When it began to thrive, we transplanted it into a
24-inch terra cotta pot and, because we didn't know what else to do
with it, put it next to the house against a north-facing wall behind a
row of guavas. And promptly forgot about it. Big mistake.

About a year later, we noticed it had sent an enormous root out over
the rim of the pot and into the ground. Since then it has grown like
crazy [as I watched it, I kept expecting Jack Nicholson to show up],
split the pot, and become fully established in the ground. When the
roofing guys installed a new roof earlier this year, they hacked off a
lot of it. And I've cut off a couple of laterals that were threatening
the dish, but it's time the whole thing goes before the foundation
does. 

It's too bad in a way. I really like the tree and if I'd had any idea
how aggressive ["vigorous" is probably a better word] it would be, I'd
have put the pot somewhere else or planted it in the ground. Out on
the 
point [the place where the property nestles into the intersection],
I've got a very dark ["Rubra," I think it's called] Ficus elastica and
a variegated F. elastica--both growing as large shrubs. The F. lyrata
would have made a nice addition there.


Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4
Zone 10a
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Support hort.net -- join the hort.net fund drive!
http://www.hort.net/funds/


Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4
Zone 10a
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Support hort.net -- join the hort.net fund drive!
http://www.hort.net/funds/

Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index