Khaimraj,
Sounds like you have given them a fair chance and they just do not work well
for you.
Oh well. We can't grow everything or like everything. Except some of us
still keep trying.
Thanks for the information.
Jerry Meislik
Whitefish Montana USA
Zone 4-5
http://www.bonsaihunk.8m.com/
Good Morning to All,
Jerry,

that experience was I believe one of those blue moon
experiences,but I have had branches die off on the
ficus b. a good few times.

I started of with the simple ficus b. grown in the malls/
shopping centres,the glossy leaf with reddish new growth,
then grew retusa,nitida,priminoides,toolittle,religiosa,nata sha
[called that in Europe],plus a few local types.
Their all easy to just grow[and grow and grow],but I never
found one that really satisfied the treeish look I like.

I have one type of ficus b., the leaves are not glossy and
it tends to produce berries easily,branches beautifully,but
still lacks the uumph needed for tree presence.It was a
3" cutting from my school in Florence,Italy,great memory.
It's now about 28"tall with a dome of about 30".

I live on the side of a hill,within a wind channel,tropical temperatures
and humidity from 40 to 80%,rarely over 90%.

Ficus anything grows easily,but I have yet to find one that
I would show as a specimen.Guess I may be expecting too
much of a Temperate feel out of this tree.I like my domes
to have a feeling of air,negative space and 3 dimensional movement
within the dome as I see it in nature.
With ficus I get a shrub type dome,and the rapid growth requires
so much attention that you have to neglect the other trees.

It's a very frustrating tree-ha ha ha.

Plus the tree can live on air and still expand,fine branchlets
are a pain to maintain.All in all it's a great bush.

I promised Billy[of the space coast]that I would give it at least one
more go,but that was a year or so ago and I have had it
with ficus in general,I am sticking with the elms,serissas,
fukien teas,tamarinds and sparrow plums.Even the finicky
fustic is less nerve twisting,or the dinner plate leaves of seagrape
and the rapid growing ligustrum,causes less pain.
Khaimraj
West Indies/Caribbean

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Jarbas Godoy ++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++