rare and unusual Ficus, anyone growing any?

[Hornet]

Wondering if anyone is growing and of the less common ficus species? Species such as religiosa, destruens, benghalensis, auriculata, altissima, petiolaris, palmeri, Burtt davyi, montana etc.

John

[Luke308]

No, but religiosa seemed familiar, so I googled it and I found this great pic

Ficus_religiosa808_233aOlgaB.jpg

[Hornet]

thats an interesting fig, love how its grown around the dead frond bases of the palm.

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi Luke308,

The leaves look like religiosa. They are very strong. I have not seen any in Australia yet. But ficus racemosa seems to do well in Victoria; some one I know has imported it, and he has successfully layered several, but racemosa leaves can be large, although not as large as the native ones.

In Vietnamese, http://hoalancaycanh.com/diendan/showth ... -cay-Bo-de, but the pictures show how severed religiosa can be root pruned.

Cheers.

[toohey]

I thought the fig looked better with the exposed roots.
Michael Toohey

[Matthew]

I have a indian banyan (Ficus benghalensis), which ive grown from a cutting off a very old one from the rockhampton botanical gardens. not sure if its rare or not but its the only one i have

[Luke308]

you can buy seeds for the sacred fig(ficus religiosa) on ebay. thats why it was familiar to me. http://shop.ebay.com.au/?_from=R40&_trk ... Categories

[stefpix]

Have been growing F. religiosa and F. bengalensis from seed. 2 1/2 year old saplings.

F. bengalensis grows with a caudex and does not branch much (will have to top it off at some point). It has nice leaves, somehow large. New leaves in good light have a bronze color.

F. religiosa seems a bit less vigorous and easier at dropping leaves but it branches readily. A squirrel chopped teh top of a sapling off and it came back with multiple branches. I am growing one also in semi hydro.

it is nice to grow them from seed. You could create a forest or fuse trunks.


I think I will try
F. macrophylla, F. destruens, F. rubiginosa, F. obliqua, F. virens.

Any advice? are they differentiated enough that makes it worth to grow all three species from seed or should I just pick one or two? I have limited space.

stefano

[Glenda]

I have two small religiosa. I also have a deltoida which is not very common as far as I know. The problem with the religiosa is the leaf size - they seem more reluctant to reduce. I am going to let mine grow into bigger trees than I normally do, to reduce the discrepancy.

Up here in the tropics, the religiosa seems to be commonplace. There are quite a few large specimens planted in public places like parks, in the centre of roundabouts, in the local show grounds, in the public pool in the city centre etc.

Glenda

[stefpix]

Thanks. I just want now to grow them as house plants in the winter and spring / summer outdoor. I will see if i could try to bonsai one or 2.

I have noticed that some seedlings of F bengalensis have different size leaves than others.

Anyway I was wondering which among these are the most exotic looking - I would not want to grow something whose leaves look like a common F. microcarpa...

I would like to see a comparison of leaf size and color and bark hue of the following:
F. macrophylla, F. destruens, F. rubiginosa, F. obliqua, F. virens.

here are some photos of my Ficuses from seed
public album no login required
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 9ae92bfe09


stefano