MY FINAL FICUS purchase is this willow leaf
Ficus salicaria or
neriifolia '89 ($200+$31 shipping+$40 repot), native to Asian countries (India, Burma, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, China where it is raised for cattle fodder) in a latitude more northerly than that of the Philippines and altitude up to 2900 meters (9500 ft) above sea level. The American willow leaf variety has smaller leaves and is shorter, but the Florida deep freeze of 1989 (I was living in sunny San Diego then) restored its original Himalayan DNA. The cold snap froze the nursery stock of a planter named Jim Smith in Vero Beach, Florida to the ground, but the figs did not die, growing faster and with larger leaves instead after the big thaw. Is the freak cold snap of '89 nature's tricky vaccine that made the American willow leaf ficus more robust and cold hardy?
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| Jim Smith with his mutant ficus |
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| Andrea's find at the nursery |
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| Repotted after aerial roots were repositioned |
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| New front view: the bole above the soil line looks as mystical as a monk |
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