I've been fretting about a tree I have, it's a
Ficus benjiamina. and I've been told it's yet another tree that'll overrun my yard and smash up my walls and floors with its roots of power. Here it is:
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| Ficus benjiamina. Fun fact:the word for a leaf having two colours is 'variegated' |
Also if I have to be honest with you and myself I don't want my only bed to act solely as a vehicle for three trees. It had to go. But wait! I love trees! I can't chop trees down! internet! help me!
During some frantic pleas on facebook for someone to take the thing off my hands and a whole lot of research into its exact species name I found something interesting. It's an indoor plant too, chatting to friends and family confirmed this. Now it may be that everyone just called it an indoor plant because they had the same dilemma but that's probably just my paranoia talking (I have that on occasion, I use cream).
First to make space!
Well I have two Oleanders so..
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| DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! |
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| Just joking!! |
Phew! Well I didn't do all that, I hired a professional because I lack the expertise and the muscle to deal with entire trees. So much so the rest of this tale shall be told in pictures.
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| Abduction |
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| It looks worse than it is. |
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| You're coming with us son! |
At this point we filled up the pot with some of that enriched potting mix over a layer of rocks. Then plonked the tree on top of that and covered the rest of the roots with more potting mix.
And Finally
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| You can't see it in the picture but this tree dominates the ground floor :D |
And there she is! In a week it will suffer some distress from the move and the leaves will fall off. I was instructed to prune it but I do like the shape and the leaves will grow back, although slower. I'll post an update after everything has played out.
Also I should point out that after the potting we added about 10 minutes (I measure water by how long I leave the hose on) worth of water to the pot to make sure the roots have an easier time of it.
Finally I'll leave you with the guy who saved my behind on this one. To those in Malta he charged me a very reasonable fee and he knows his stuff!
