Re: Ficus palmeri and a not so new intro :)

Barry,

I don't think this Ficus will be too happy outdoors in
your climate, so cold and foggy most of the summer
there in Seaside.  It will probably be much happier if
grown indoors in a greenhouse of sunny sunporch, where
the ambient temps are more agreeable to it.  It
definitely prefers dry heat to cool damp fog.

Tony, you are mostly correct about Figs in zone 9
conditions here in California, they are safest in
coastal northern California where it seldom freezes
much below -5C/24F in winter, and even in San
Francisco, many figs such as F. macrophylla and F.
retusa were damaged in the last severe freeze of 1990,
but generally fully recovered, while many other trees
such as Tristania conferta or Metrosideros excelsa did
not.  Ficus lyrata and F. benjamina are generally only
safely grown in southern coastal California, but are
fairly common there.  F. rubiginosa is also used in
southern California, but very rare here in the San
Francisco Bay Area.

Sydney by the water sounds much warmer in winter and
hotter/more humid in summer than even Southern
California, and San Francisco/Oakland is probably
closer to Melbourne for winter conditions, although we
are probably milder overall, and also cooler in
summer.

We can't grow and bloom trees like Plumeria and
Delonix outdoors here, although people in southern
California do succede with Plumeria and get the
occasional flower by the end of summer, but nothing
like where they are better adapted.




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