Ficus Obliqua

This is a F. obliqua I collected growing out of a sandstone wall in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney, around 20+ years ago. It had a canopy about 3ft across, and these 2 slender trunks holding the whole mass up. No idea how old it is but it must have been growing in the crack in the wall for at least 10 yrs or so to get to the size it was.??? I removed all the branches at the time and ran a saw against the wall and base cut it free. It now stands around 15ins tall and 16in wide canopy. The nebari is my biggest issue with this tree…. very one sided due to its original growing angle. Never really known how to correct or improve it, so have learned to live and work with it. First pic was November 2011. Frustrated and neglected for a few years. Here is the same tree August 2012 after a season of more attention and a regular fert program instead of neglect. Another year on….October 2012  I restyled this fig with the original rear view as the new front. There is some lengthening of the RH primary branch to happen, but so far it is powering along. I shouted it a new bigger pot as well and it looks like it is enjoying the extra room….so pretty happy with the progress so far. January 2014 We are smack bang in the middle of a hot summer down here which is perfect time to work on our figs…. here is the result after defoliation and full rewire, sitting on one of my own home made stands.   Overhead view below, showing good ramification developing.

Ficus Retusa Shohin approach graft.

This was an ordinary upright Ficus Retusa, with not much going for it except some nice markings on the bark being a Tiger Bark. Laying it on its’ side and retaining one side branch, i figured it could make an interesting semi cascade shohin, so out came the loppers and off with the rest of the tree. A nice little pot and into the hot house it went hoping for numerous shoots to appear from the knob I had left….. well a couple of months on, and plenty of shoots in the area of the knob, but none exactly where I wanted, so it was grafting time. I had planted up cuttings from the earlier chop which had rapidly taken root and were growing strongly, so after sorting through a few, I found the perfect one…. long enough side branch with plenty of foliage already on it. This graft would give me another horizontal branch, plus a vertical one as the new leader/trunkline. Plonked them both in a bigger training pot and filled it with soil as well, to stabilize the two plants, and also provide extra room for roots to grow when they escape from the smaller pots, which in turn should speed up the whole grafting process.

F.Retusa ….sorry for the bad quality pic.:(

Detail of graft area

Safely secured

More storm damage

 

This majestic old fig is believed to be around 150yrs old according to my neighbour who has run cattle on this farm for over 50 yrs. Last week during non stop rain, the entire back half of the tree split away leaving barely half of the original form. It now lays dying on the ground, trampled by the cattle that once took shelter under it from the heat of the sun. Huge figs like this are splitting in half and dropping massive limbs all over our shire due to the relentless rain over the past weeks. Everything is waterlogged and roots are rotting by the minute, leaving these giants vulnerable, and without much hope of survival. Sad days for us….:(