I just got this "tree" from my dad. He got it from an office building that was closing down and getting rid of VERY mature trees/landscape plants. I really cannot identify it - I tried online keys at A&M, nursery workers, and just googling descriptions. Can someone give me a clue? It is almost 7 feet tall (and we cut about 6 inches off the top to bring it in.) I don't know about it's light requirements or diseases/pests to look out for... Thanks!
Could be a Ficus 'Ali' .... I have a small one that resembles those leaves. Can you post a close up of the leaves?
Here's mine:
The plant you showed was one of the possibilities I found searching "willow" and "ficus" - is it sometimes called a willow ficus? As you may notice in the image below, I thought that the leaves on my plant looked more slender, less woody, and are arranged on the stem more like a palm leaf. That's what has me baffled! Except for that big, thick wooden trunk, this plant really reminds me of a palm. Thanks for the suggestion - maybe it's a different variety of your ficus...
Decided to google Willow Ficus! I had never heard of this one, but found it in Plant Files: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/68342/
When I look at the close up of the leaves on the willow ficus they seem to be much shorter in length than the leaves on your plant.
You may have a palm of some sort. Here's the Parlor Palm:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1479/
I think you have one of the 'weeping' Podocarpus trees.
Possibly Podocarpus elongatus?
I have one that looks very much like it.
I could NOT grow this in my home for lack of light and too much heat in the winter.
It shed leaves like crazy, until I brought it to work, where we have a cool and bright entryway.
It really needs a COOL environment during the winter and very good light....not necessarily direct sun, though.
In the summer, I put the tree outdoors under the covered stairway. It gets no direct light there, but nice bright light.
Here's a photo of my Parlor Palm. I am thinking your plant is a palm of some sort. They use these palms a lot in interior decor in malls and office buildings quite a lot. The one you have is quite tall but a beautiful plant. I sure would like to know for certain what it is ... neat looking plant!
Woo Hoo .... I think Nan got it! Check out these photo's ... leaves look just like your tree. I love this plant ... wish I could find one around here, I gotta ask at the local nursery!
http://www.hear.org/starr/hiplants/images/thumbnails/html/podocarpus_sp.htm
Lin, if you're up to trying to root a cutting, I can send you one.
I've tried and have never succeeded....just too 'woody', I guess, but the FLA heat and humidity may prove helpful in propagating this one!
Oh Nan, I would love to give it a try! Don't know anything about Podocarpus. We had one (but not that weeping one) in our yard 30 years ago and it got taller than the house but something ended up getting it! I love that weeping form!
Wow! I left the room for a while and came back to all these great posts! I had a look at Podocarpus elongatus on the link you gave above and I agree - especially one shot of a drooping branch looks just like my tree (though I wish I had the dove in mine). I am disappointed to hear it doesn't like low light or heat. My house has terrible light conditions and I live south of Houston, so we're hot all the time. My dad had it in his house in Dallas where it's actually a lot cooler on average AND he keeps his house really cool all year round, so I'm not surprised it did well. I may try moving this big boy into my kitchen under one of my air conditioning vents. I can keep it by a bay window that gets some good afternoon sun. Just hope it doesn't give my cockatiel that hangs there too a heart attack! Gonna go Google Podocarpus elongatus now and look for more tips. Thanks!
monkeybearmum: What zone are you in? Maybe you could plant it in your yard!
I found this one that looks similar: http://www.gardeninginarizona.com/Plants/Podocarpaceae/Podocarpus_gracilior.html
and, Plant Files info: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/65146/
This message was edited Sep 21, 2007 2:03 PM
I'm pretty sure I'm in zone 9a, although I seem to hear conflicting opinions. This is a suburb of Houston called Sugar Land, but it is essentially Houston. I would absolutely LOVE to have a tree in my yard that gets as big and beautiful as the examples I saw on your links, but I actually have pretty limited yard space since a huge part of my unplanted lawn has utility lines underground. I am also in a section of our subdivision that has lousy drainage and lots of standing water when it rains and at least one post I saw on Podocarpus said they don't like those conditions. I am a little nervous now, however, having seen the size these trees can reach. I don't know much about bonsai, but I'm thinking I'll need to learn how to dwarf this guy a bit if I want to keep him inside!
I would think you could prune the top out just as you can prune most plants. Maybe someone more familiar with this kind of tree will chime in here with some advice on that.
You can cut the top off....I had to do that to mine to get it back indoors last year!
It doesn't look 'quite' as graceful as it did, but it still looks good.
You could also try to root the top and if successful you'd have another tree!
Now I'd heard that Podocarpus love lots of water.....and I water mine quite a bit in the summer, but not so much in the winter.
Have to do some research on the watering, I guess.
If you're growing it indoors, it's a whole different 'ball game', so to speak, than the ones growing in HI in that link.
As to the watering - the plant Dad brought me has a watering system installed by the landscaping people he got it from. I haven't looked at it, but he said it's basically a reservoir (he thinks it's about 2 gallons!) that the roots wrap around and feed directly into. My job is to check this tube with a float that extends above the soil and to make sure I keep the float up. Well, I got this tree last Saturday and we filled the reservoir. I noticed today that the tree was dropping a lot of leaves so I checked the float. Can you believe I had to add almost 1.5 gallons of water to bring the level back up? I can't believe it can consume that much in a week. I'm really going to have to stay on top of this or I'll end up accidentally killing it.
Yep ... some plants just love water! Probably during winter it won't require as much but during summer some plants are very thirsty indeed! Big tree, gallons of water!!
Wow! That's a fabulous tree! I gotta check out my nursery!
